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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

GIF^T   OK 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894. 
Accessions  No .  S^...  (e-      Class  No. 


THE    CITY: 


ITS    SINS    AND    SORROWS 


RECENTLY    PUBLISHED, 

THE    GOSPEL    IN    EZEKIEL. 

BY  THE  REV.  DR.  GUTHRIE. 

12mo.  $1  00. 

"  Usually  happy  in  their  selection  of  foreign  works  for  re- 
publication,  the  Messrs.  Carter  have  never  done  a  wiser  thing 
for  themselves,  nor  a  better  thing  for  the  community,  than  in 
reproducing  for  American  readers  the  fine  eloquence  of  the 
greatest  living  preacher  in  Scotland.  No  such  stirring  ser 
mons  have  issued  from  the  press  in  this  country  since  the  time 
of  President  Davies.  At  times  you  may  be  ready  to  charge 
the  preacher  with  extravagance ;  at  times  you  may  quarrel 
with  his  theology  as  hard,  illogical,  and,  on  some  points,  self- 
contradictory  ;  but,  after  all,  you  will  confess  that  never  was 
your  heart  more  thoroughly  moved  by  the  truths  of  the  gospel 
than  _  through  the  vivid  images,  the  impassioned  appeals,  the 
burning  words  of  these  twenty  sermons,  combining  as  they  do 
the  peculiarities  of  Ezekiel  and  of  Paul.  Would  that  New 
York  had  ten  such  preachers  as  this  light  of  the  Free  Church 
in  Edinburgh.  We  have  read  the  book  with  tears." — Inde 
pendent. 

"If  our  clergy  desire  to  see  how  the  most  intense  evangel 
icalism  can  be  presented  with  all  the  freshness  of  a  spring 
morning ;  if  they  desire  a  book  which  they  may  study  as  a 
model  from  which  to  preach  to  persons  who  live'in  the  nine 
teenth  century,  then  let  them  buy  this  work.  If  our  laity  de 
sire  a  book  of  sermons,  not  dull  or  uninteresting,  they  will 
find  it  here.  We  predict  for  this  book  a  large  sale." — South. 
Churchman. 

"  Dr.  Guthrie  is  one  of  the  most  able,  and  eloquent  scholars 
of  the  Free  Church  in  Scotland.  The  twenty  sermons  of 
which  this  volume  is  composed,  at  once  settle  the  fact  that  he 
is  the  greatest  preacher  in  that  land  of  keen,  intrepid  theolo 
gians.  We  by  no  means  endorse  every  doctrinal  position,  or 
approve  every  turn  of  the  rhetoric.  "And  yet  we  can  most 
heartily  commend  the  volume  for  its  downright  Christian 
earnestness,  its  depth  of  moral  conviction,  its  strong,  fresh 
thought,  its  impassioned  brilliance,  and  terse,  pungent  style." 
—Gazette, 


THE  CITY: 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS. 


BEING  A  SERIES  OF  SERMONS  FROM  LUKE  XIX.  41, 


"  He  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it.' 


BY 


THOMAS  GUTHRIE,  D.D. 
*t  ' 

AUTHOB    OF    TUB     "GOSPEL     IN     EZKKIEL,"    ETC. 


NEW    YORK: 
EGBERT    CARTER    &    BROTHERS, 

No.    530    BRO AD W  A.Y. 


STEREOTYPE!)     BY  S.    E.    THOMSON,  PRINTED  BY 

THOMAS  B.   SMITH,  BINDKR,  E.O.JENKINS 

82  &  84   Beekrnan-strcet.  82  &  84  Beekinan-st.          26  Frankfort-st. 


ITS    SINS   AND    SORROWS. 


SERMON    I. 

*'  He  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it." — LTJKE  xix.  41. 

ONE  evening  as  Saul  returned  to  Gibeah 
with  bis  cattle  from  their  distant  pastures, 
the  lowing  of  his  herd  was  lost  in  a  wail  that 
grew  loud  and  louder  as  he  drew  near  the 
city.  Some  mischief  has  happened.  Amazed 
and  alarmed,  he  hurries  forward  to  find  the 
people  all  dissolved  in  tears — distracted  by 
some  public  grief.  "What  can  have  happened? 
Bathed  in  golden  sunset,  Gibeah  from  her 
mountain  seat  looked  quietly  down  on  the 
green  vale  of  Jordan,  away  to  the  shores  of 
the  Dead  Sea.  He  saw  no  occasion  whatever 
tor  this  terrible  turmoil.  He  saw  nor  dead 
1* 


6  THE   CITY: 

nor  dying.  Why,  then,  do  the  men  pluck 
their  beards,  the  women  with  dishevelled  hair 
and  long  loud  wail  beat  their  naked  breasts, 
and  the  very  children,  moved  by  sympathy 
and  infected  with  the  general  grief,  mingle 
their  own  with  their  parents'  tears?  Since 
morning,  when  he  left  the  city,  a  messenger, 
who  sped  on  flying  feet,  had  arrived,  breath 
less,  from  Jabesh-Gilead.  He  brought  alarm 
ing  tidings.  He  tells  Saul's  townsmen  that 
unless  they  and  the  country  will  rise  to  the 
rescue,  the  city  must  open  her  gates  to  the 
Ammonites,  and  submit  to  the  most  barbarous 
cruelties.  Ignorant  of  this,  nor  seeing  occa 
sion  for  their  sorrow,  Saul,  on  whom  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  was  about  to  descend,  that  he 
might  rise  an  avenger  and  deliverer  of  the  op 
pressed,  demanded  to  know  the  cause  of  this 
frantic  grief.  He  said:—" What  ailetli  the 
people  that  they  weep  ?" 

The  same  question  may  be  asked  regarding 
the  Saviour's  tears  on  the  occasion  to  which 
my  text  refers.  A  mighty  crowd  was  rolling 
down  upon  Jerusalem  from  the  sides  of  Olivet. 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  7 

On  they  came,  rending  the  air  with  acclama 
tions.  With  prophetic  ear,  and  five  centuries 
before,  Zechariah  had  heard  these  shouts,  and 
catching  them,  where  he  stood  upon  the 
heights  of  prophecy,  he  shouted  back  again  to 
the  jubilant  multitude  :• — "  Eejoice  greatly,  0 
daughter  of  Zion,  shout,  0  daughter  of  Jeru 
salem,  behold  thy  King  cometh  unto  thee. 
He  is  just,  and  having  salvation,  lowly  and 
riding  upon  an  ass."  Now  I  can  fancy  one 
of  that  crowd — who  was  near  enough  our 
Lord  to  see  the  tears  upon  his  cheek — with 
greater  surprise  than  Saul,  asking  John  or 
Peter,  or  some  other  one  of  the  twelve,  who 
formed  all  the  body-guard  of  this  KiDg,  What 
aileth  Jesus  that  he  weeps  ?  In  such  an 
hour,  what  makes  him  sad?  Did  ever  king 
thus  enter  his  capital — on  the  eve  of  his  coro 
nation  thus  present  himself  to  a  joyous  peo 
ple  ?  What  ails  him  ?  What  would  he 
have  ?  The  nation  renders  him  every  honor. 
His  enemies  being  witnesses,  the  whole  world 
is  gone  after  him.  The  palm  trees  yield  their 
branches,  the  men  their  robes,  the  women 


8  THE  CITY: 

their  admiration,  the  whole  multitude  their 
voices,  as  they  pour  their  hearts  into  the 
joyous  cry: — "Hosanna,  Hosanna,  blessed 
be  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 
Why,  then,  that  shadow  on  his  thoughtful 
brow,  that  deep  expression  of  sorrow  on  his 
face — in  his  eyes  these  starting  tears  ?  Every 
thing  smiles  on  Jesus.  The  day  is  auspicious. 
Jerusalem  has  come  out  to  welcome  her  long 
expected  King.  The  whole  scene  is  bathed  in 
sunshine,  nor  is  there  a  cloud  in  all  the  sky 
of  his  smiling  fortunes  to  account  for  this 
shower  of  tears.  What  aileth  Jesus  that  he 
weeps?  There  must  be  some  secret  grief, 
that,  overflowing  the  deep  fountains  of  his 
heart,  runs  out  at  his  eyes  in  these  streaming 
tears.  There  was. 

Often  coveted  yet  fatal  power  I  he  foresaw 
the  future.  But  however  eventful  to  this 
world  were  the  next  three  days,  it  was  not 
on  their  sad  scenes  and  circumstances  that  his 
weeping  eye  was  fixed.  Down  in  that  garden, 
by  the  glare  of  midnight  torches,  that  flashed 
and  flickered  amid  its  hoary  olives,  he  saw  a 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  9 

prisoner  bound  fast  with  cords;  in  yonder 
judgment  hall,  that  towered  conspicuous 
above  the  other  buildings,  he  saw  a  captive, 
arrayed  in  the  mockery  of  purple,  and  bearing 
on  his  brow  a  thorny  crown;  in  that  long 
street  which  wound  through  the  city,  he  saw- 
one  exhausted  by  brutal  usage,  and  pale  with 
loss  of  blood,  fainting,  falling  beneath  a  cross  ; 
and  on  a  distant  mount,  which  rose  beyond 
Jerusalem,  by  the  light  of  what  seemed  a 
dying  sun,  he  dimly  saw  a  mangled  form 
hanging  on  the  fatal  tree.  In  these  figures, 
which  presented  themselves  in  affecting  and 
terrible  succession,  the  "  seer"  saw  himself— 
none  around  to  weep  for  him  but  some  kind 
women,  nor  any  to  confess  him  but  a  dying 
thief.  Is  it  for  this  he  weeps?  No.  He 
looked  over  the  intermediate  events,  onward 
to  the  future  of  forty  years. 

The  curtain  rose.  Jerusalem  was  before 
him.  "  He  beheld  the  city ;"  not  as  now 
with  the  tide  of  business,  but  the  roar  of  bat 
tle  in  its  streets — torn  by  contending  factions, 
and  Cassar  thundering  at  the  gates — brother, 


10  THE  CITY: 

staggering  from  the  famine-struck  house,  to 
strike  his  sword  into  a  brother's  bowels — the 
holiest  laws  of  nature  horribly  reversed :  not 
infants  living  on  the  fountain  of  a  mother's 
breast,  but  mothers — famished,  miserable,  mad 
dened  mothers,  feeding  upon  their  own  off 
spring  ;  the  breached  and  battered  walls 
manned  by  living  skeletons;  the  streets  re 
sounding  with  the  groans  of  the  dying,  and 
choked  with  the  festering  bodies  of  the  dead. 
How  miserable  the  aspect  of  Jerusalem !  He 
beholds  scenes  of  sufferings,  which,  as  de 
scribed  by  an  eye  witness,  are  without  a 
parallel  even  in  the  annals  of  the  most  savage 
wars.  ISTor  does  the  curtain  fall  on  the  stage 
of  this  tragedy  of  many  terrible  acts,  until  the 
Born  an  torch  has  wrapped  the  city — body  and 
limbs,  the  house  of  David,  and  the  house  of 
God — in  one  red  winding  sheet  of  flame,  and 
the  Roman  plough  has  buried  her  guilty  ashes 
in  the  silent  earth. 

It  was  these,  the  guilt  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
sufferings  of  his  countrymen,  that  were  in 
Jesus'  eye.  Hence  this  sorrow  and  these 


ITS   SINS  AND   SORROWS.  11 

tears.  Hence,  on  another  occasion,  that  most 
touching  burst  of  pity,  patriotism,  and  piety  : 
"  0  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how  often  would  I 
have  gathered  thy  children  together  as  a  hen 
gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and 
ye  would  not.  Behold,  your  house  is  left 
unto  you  desolate."  And  at  a  time,  when  we 
should  have  expected,  that  through  the  self 
ishness  inherent  to  suffering,  his  own  sorrows 
would  have  absorbed  all  his  feeling,  hence 
also  that  tender  but  ominous  advice  to  the 
women  who  bewailed  and  lamented  him: — 
"Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  me, 
but  for  yourselves  and  children."  Eestrain 
your  grief,  keep  your  tears  for  a  future  occa 
sion,  reserve  them  for  yourselves,  for  the  babe 
unborn,  the  child  that  hangs  upon  your  breast. 
When  Pontius  Pilate— that  unhappy  time- 
server — brought  out  our  Lord  before  the  infu 
riate  multitude,  perhaps  he  cherished  the  hope, 
that  the  pitiful  sight  would  calm  their  passions, 
as  Jesus'  voice  did  the  blustering  winds  and 
rude  waves  of  Galilee.  And  we  are  told,  that 
as  Jesus  appeared,  "  wearing  the  crown  of 


.HJf  I  VIE  SIT' Yf 

**•*-!  // 


12  THE   CITY. 

thorns  and  the  purple  robe,"  Pilate  appealed 
to  them,  saying : — "  Behold  the  man."  These 
words  of  a  scene,  which  even  in  its  rudest 
painting,  we  cannot  study  without  emotion — 
although  like  oil  poured,  not  on  the  stormy 
waters,  but  the  roaring  fire,  they  only  increas 
ed  and  intensified  the  cry  of  "  crucify  him, 
crucify  him/' — may  be  applied  with  propriety 
to  the  scene  before  us.  "  He  wept."  This  was 
not  a  God  weeping — God  cannot  weep.  These 
were  not  angels'  tears — for  angels  never  weep. 
In  them,  in  the  sad  expression  on  his  blessed 
face,  I  say  with  Pilate : — "  Behold  the  man !  " 
the  veritable  man,  bone  of  our  bone,  flesh  of 
our  flesh,  soul  of  our  soul,  heart  of  our  heart, 
strung  by  the  same  hand  and  tuned  to  the 
same  harmony  as  our  own.  How  precious  are 
these  sorrows !  They  attest  his  perfect  man 
hood.  They  assure  us  of  his  sympathy,  when 
we  attempt  to  lay  bare  before  you  the  evils  of 
our  city,  and  rouse  you  to  arrest  and  amend 
them.  They  warrant  us  to  expect  a  blessing 
from  him  who  loved  his  kindred  as  a  man,  and 
his  country  as  a  patriot.  From  heaven  he 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  13 

watches  our  fight  with  the  powers  of  darkness, 
and  regards  with  applauding  eye  all — the 
humblest  as  well  as  highest  laborer — who, 
sighing  and  crying  "for  the  abominations  that 
are  done  in  the  land,"  labor  to  leave  the  world, 
their  native  country,  or  the  city  of  their  habi 
tation,  somewhat  better  than  they  found  them. 
Before  we  unveil  the  evils  that  call  for  tears, 
and,  as  we  shall  by  and  by  show,  call  for  some 
thing  else  than  tears,  let  us — 

1st.    Look  at  the  city  in  some  of  its  favorable 

aspects. 

This  earth's  earliest  city  was  built  by  a  mur 
derer.  Its  foundations,  I  may  say,  were  laid 
in  blood.  Enoch  was  its  name,  Cain  was  its 
founder.  Those  who,  living  far  from  the  din 
and  bustle  of  cities,  read  with  a  wonder  that 
grows  into  horror,  the  dark  record  of  their 
courts  and  crimes ;  those,  who  see  in  the  blast 
ing  effect  of  their  murky  air  on  flower,  and 
shrub,  and  tree,  only  an  emblem  of  their  with 
ering  influence  on  the  fairest  human  virtues ; 
those  simple  cottagers,  who,  tremblingly  alive 
2 


14  THE  CITY: 

to  their  danger,  saw  a  son  or  a  daughter  leave 
home  for  the  distant  city,  and  have  received 
her  back  from  a  Magdalene,  or  him  from  a 
prison,  to  expire  in  the  arms  of  forgiving,  but 
broken-hearted  affection,  they  may  fancy  that 
the  curse  of  the  first  murderer  and  their  first 
founder  hangs  over  earth's  cities  —  dark, 
heavy,  as  their  cloud  of  smoke. 

We  can  excuse  them  for  thinking  so.  Great 
cities  some  have  found  to  be  great  curses.  It 
had  been  well  for  many  an  honest  country 
lad,  and  many  an  unsuspecting  young  woman, 
that  hopes  of  higher  wages  and  opportunities 
of  fortune,  that  the  gay  attire,  and  polished 
tongue,  and  gilded  story  of  some  old  acquaint 
ance,  had  never  turned  their  steps  cityward, 
nor  lured  them  away  from  the  rude  simplicity 
but  safety  of  their  rustic  home.  Many  a  foot 
that  once  lightly  pressed  the  heather  or  brush 
ed  the  dewy  grass,  lias  wearily  trodden  in 
darkness  and  guilt  and  sin  these  city  pave 
ments.  Happy  had  it  been  for  many  that  they 
had  never  exchanged  the  starry  skies  for  the 
lamps  of  the  town,  nor  had  ever  left  their 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  15 

lonely  glens,  or  quiet  "hamlets,  or  solitary 
shores,  for  the  throng  and  roar  of  our  streets — 
well  for  them,  that  they  had  heard  no  roar 
but  the  river's,  whose  winter  flood  it  had  been 
safer  to  breast;  no  roar  but  ocean's,  whose 
stormiest  waves  it  had  been  safer  to  ride  than 
encounter  the  flood  of  city  temptation,  which 
has  wrecked  their  virtue  and  swept  them  into 
ruin. 

Yet  I  bless  God  for  cities.     I  recognise  a 
wise  and  gracious  providence  in  their  exist 
ence.    The  world  had  not  been  what  it  is  with 
out  them.     The  disciples  were  commanded  to 
"begin  at  Jerusalem,"  and  Paul  threw  himself 
into  the  cities  of  the  ancient  world,  as  offering 
the  most  commanding  positions  of  influence. 
Cities  have  been  as  lamps  of  light,  along  the 
pathway  of  humanity  and  religion.     Within 
them  science  has  given  birth  to  her  noblest 
discoveries.     Behind  their  walls  freedom  has 
fought  her  noblest  battles.     They  have  stood 
on  the  surface  of  the  earth  like  great  break 
waters,  rolling  back  or  turning  aside  the  swell 
ing  tide  of  oppression.     Cities  indeed  have 


16  THE  CITY: 

been  the  cradles  of  human  liberty.  They 
have  been  the  radiating,  active  centres  of  al 
most  all  church  and  state  reformation.  Hav 
ing  therefore  no  sympathy  with  those  who, 
regarding  them  as  the  excrescences  of  a  tree 
or  the  tumors  of  disease,  would  raze  our  cities 
to  the  ground,  I  bless  God  for  cities.  And 
before  addressing  you  on  their  evils,  will  ad 
vert  to  some  of  their  advantages. 

First,  The  highest  humanity  is  developed  in 
cities. 

Somehow  or  other,  amid  their  crowding  and 
confinement,  the  human  mind  finds  its  fullest, 
freest  expansion.  Unlike  the  dwarfed  and 
dusty  plants  which  stand  around  our  suburban 
villas,  languishing,  like  exiles,  for  the  purer 
air  and  freer  sunshine  that  kiss  their  fellows 
far  away  in  flowery  field  and  green  woodland, 
on  sunny  banks  and  breezy  hills,  man  reaches 
his  highest  condition  amid  tbfe  social  influ 
ences  of  the  crowded  city.  His  intellect  re 
ceives  its  brightest  polish  where  gold  and 
silver  lose  theirs — tarnished  by  the  searching 
smoke  and  foul  vapors  of  city  air.  The  finest 


ITS  SINS   AND   SORROWS.  17 

flowers  of  genius  have  grown  in  an  atmos 
phere  where  those  of  nature  are  prone  to 
droop,  and  difficult  to  bring  to  maturity.  The 
mental  powers  acquire  their  full  robustness 
where  the  cheek  loses  its  ruddy  hue,  and  the 
limbs  their  elastic  step,  and  pale  thought  sits 
on  manly  brows,  and  the  watchman,  as  he 
walks  his  rounds,  sees  the  student's  lamp 
burning  far  into  the  silent  night.  And  as 
aerolites — those  shooting  stars  which,  like  a 
good  man  on  his  path  in  life,  leave  a  train  of 
glory  behind  them  on  the  dusky  sky— are 
supposed  to  catch  fire  by  the  rapidity  of  their 
motion,  as  they  rush  through  the  higher  re 
gions  of  our  atmosphere,  so  the  mind  of  man 
fires,  burns,  shines,  acquires  its  most  dazzling 
brilliancy,  by  the  very  rapidity  of  action  into 
which  it  is  thrown  amid  the  bustle  and  ex 
citements  of  city  life. 

Second,  The  highest  piety  is  developed  in  cities. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  most  active  trades 
men,  the  most  vigorous  laborers,  the  most 
intelligent  artisans,  the  most  enterprising  mer 
chants,  are  to  be  found  in  cities.  And  if,  just 


18  THE    CITY: 

as  in  those  countries  where  tropical  suns  arid 
the  same  skies  ripen  the  sweetest  fruits  and 
deadliest  poisons,  you  find  in  the  city  the  most 
daring  and  active  wickedness,  you  find  there 
also — "boldly  confronting  it — the  most  active, 
diligent,  zealous,  warm-hearted,  self-denying, 
and  devoted  Christians.  No  blame  to  the 
country  for  that.  Christians  are  like  soldiers 
— it  is  easier  fighting  in  the  regiment,  where 
the  men  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder,  than 
standing  alone  to  maintain  some  solitary  out 
post.  Christians,  to  use  a  familiar  figure,  are 
like  coals,  or  firebrands — they  burn  brightest 
when  gathered  into  heaps.  Christians  are  like 
trees — they  grow  the  tallest  where  they  stand 
together  ;  running  no  small  chance,  like  a 
solitary  tree,  of  becoming  dwarfed,  stunted, 
gnarled,  and  bark -bound,  if  they  grow  alone. 
You  never  yet  saw  a  tall  and  tapering  mast 
which,  catchiDg  the  winds  of  heaven  in  its 
outspread  wings,  impelled  the  gallant  ship  on 
through  the  sea,  and  over  the  rolling  billows, 
but  its  home  had  been  the  forest — there,  with 
its  foot  planted  upon  the  Norwegian  rock,  it 


ITS  SINS  AND   SOKKOWS.  19 

grew  amid  neighbors  that  drew  up  each  orher 
to  the  skies.  So  is  it  with  piety.  The  Chris 
tian  power  that  has  moved  a  sluggish  world 
on,  the  Christian  benevolence  and  energy  that 
have  changed  the  face  of  society,  the  Christian 
zeal  that  has  gone  forth,  burning  to  win  na 
tions  and  kingdoms  for  Jesus,  have,  in  most 
instances,  been  born  and  nursed  in  cities.  To 
the  active  life  and  constant  intercourse  which 
belong  to  them,  religion  has  owed  her  highest 
polish,  and  that  freedom  from  peculiarities 
and  corners,  which  the  stones  of  the  sea-beach 
acquire  by  being  rolled  against  each  other  in 
the  swell  and  surf  of  daily  tides. 

In  rural  districts,  with  all  their  natural  and 
ever-fresh  charms,  a  good  man  often  finds  a 
weary  loneHness ;  and  where  fields,  and  hills, 
and  long  miles  separate  him  from  church  and 
Christian  neighbors,  it  needs  an  extraordinary 
measure  of  the  grace  of  God  to  make  his  life 
of  comparative  isolation  "a  solitude  sweet 
ened."  Give  me  the  city  with  Christian  neigh 
bors  at  my  door,  and  daily  intercourse  with 
genial  and  congenial  spirits.  If  I  fall,  I  have 


20  THE  CITY: 

them  there  that  will  help  me  up  ;  if  I  flag,  I 
have  them  there  that  will  help  me  on ;  if  two 
are  better  than  one,  twenty  are  better  than 
two  ;  and  with  such  opportunities  of  Christian 
fellowship  as  the  city  only  affords,  my  circum 
stances  there  are  much  more  allied  to  those  of 
the  saints  in  glory,  than  his  whose  lot  is  cast 
amid  the  distant  and  scattered  homes  of  rural 
scenes.  He  often  has  to  pursue  his  journey 
through  the  desert — so  far  as  human  inter 
course  is  concerned — all  but  alone,  a  solitary 
pilgrim  to  Canaan.  Manifold  as  are  their 
evils,  their  temptations,  and  their  snares,  it  is 
only  in  cities  that  piety  enjoys  the  full  benefit 
of  the  truth,  "as  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  doth 
the  face  of  a  man  his  friend." 

Third,  The  highest  happiness  of  saints  is  found 
in  city  life. 

Man  is  a  social  as  well  as  domestic  being. 
His  arms  may  not,  but  his  heart  can  embrace 
more  than  a  family.  His  nature  is  social. 
His  religion  is  social.  And  as  the  earth's  lofti 
est  peaks  rise  not  in  their  snows  on  some  iso 
lated  hill  that  stands  like  a  lonely  pyramid  on 


ITS  SINS  AND-SOItROWS.  21 

the  level  plain,  but  where  the  mountains,  as  in 
the  Alps,  or  Andes,  or  Himalayan  range,  are 
grouped  and  massed  together,  so  the  saint's 
most  heavenly  happiness  is  not  attained  in 
solitude,  not  even  within  the  domestic  circle, 
but  where  religious  life  exists  in  its  social 
character.  It  was  for  a  wider  than  a  family 
circle  Jesus  taught  us  the  prayer,  "  Our  Fa 
ther  which  art  in  heaven."  How  sweetly 
these  words  sound,  when  they  rise  in  morning 
or  evening  orisons  from  a  loving  family ! 
How  impressive  that  prayer  appears  when, 
beneath  the  roof  of  some  noble  temple,  a  great 
congregation,  embracing  sovereign  and  sub 
jects,  titled  peer  and  humble  peasant,  rich  and 
poor,  the  lowly  and  the  lofty,  all  on  their 
knees,  and  with  one  voice  uttering  the  words, 
acknowledge  in  men  a  common  brotherhood, 
and  in  God  a  common  Father !  And  yet  that 
sublime  invocation,  "  Our  Father  which  art  in 
heaven,"  will  never  be  offered  in  its  full  sub 
limity  till  the  swarthy  Negro,  and  the  roving 
Indian,  and  the  wandering  Tartar,  and  the 
homeless  Jew,  and  all  the  pale  and  dark-faced 


22  THE  CITY: 

tribes  of  men,  send  it  up  swelling  to  the  ear 
of  God,  like  the  voice  of  many  waters  and  the 
voice  of  mighty  thunderings.  Then  shall  a 
free  and  glad  world  know  the  tenderness,  the 
breadth  and  the  length  of  the  expression, 
"  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven." 

In  presenting  heaven  itself  to  us  under  the 
emblem  of  a  city,  the  Bible  bestows  the  palm, 
and  pronounces  the  highest  possible  eulogium 
on  city  life.  "There  are  many  mansions," 
says  our  Lord,  "in  my  Father's  house." 
"  And  I,"  says  John,  "  saw  the  holy  city,  New 
Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven,  prepared  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her 
husband.  And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of 
heaven,  saying,  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God 
is  with  men,  and  He  will  dwell  with  them, 
and  they  shall  be  his  people,  and  He  their 
God."  Again,  he  says :  "  He  carried  me  away 
in  the  Spirit  to  a  great  and  high  mountain, 
and  showed  me  that  great  city,  the  holy  Jeru 
salem,  descending  out  of  heaven  from  God, 
having  the  glory  of  God:  and  her  light  was 
like  unto  a  stone  most  precious,  even  like  a 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORKOWS.  23 

jasper  stone,  clear  as  crystal ;  and  had  a  wall 
great  and  high,  and  had  twelve  gates,  and  at 
the  gates  twelve  angels."  "And  the  twelve 
gates  were  twelve  pearls ;  every  several  gate 
was  of  one  pearl :  and  the  street  of  the  city 
was  pure  gold,  as  it  were  transparent  glass. 
And  I  saw  no  temple  therein :  for  the  Lord 
God  Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  temple 
of  it.  And  the  city  had  no  need  of  the  sun, 
neither  of  the  moon,  to  shine  in  it :  for  the 
glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is 
the  light  thereof."  Again  he  says  :  "  After 
these  things  I  heard  a  great  voice  of  much 
people  in  heaven,  saying,  Halleluiah,  salvation 
and  glory  and  honor  and  power  unto  the 
Lord  our  God.  And  I  heard  as  it  were  the 
voice  of  a  great  multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of 
many  waters,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  thun- 
derings,  saying,  Halleluiah,  for  the  Lord  God 
Omnipotent  reigneth ;  let  us  be  glad  and  re 
joice,  and  give  honor  to  Him,  for  the  marriage 
of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  His  wife  hath  made 
herself  ready." 

May  we  all  get  an  invitation  to  that  mar- 


24  THE  CITY: 

riage  !  Crowned  and  robed  in  white,  may  we 
all  be  found  in  the  train  of  that  heavenly  bride  ! 
By  virtue  of  the  new  birth  may  we  all  be  free 
men  of  a  city  never  built  with  hands,  nor 
hoary  with  the  years  of  time — a  city,  whose 
inhabitants  no  census  has  numbered — a  city, 
through  whose  streets  rush  no  tides  of  busi 
ness,  nor  nodding  hearse  creeps  slowly  with 
its  burden  to  the  tomb — a  city,  without  griefs 
or  graves,  without  sins  or  sorrows,  without 
births  or  burials,  without  marriages  or  mourn 
ings — a  city,  which  glories  in  having  Jesus  for 
its  King,  angels  for  its  guards,  saints  for  its 
citizens;  whose  walls  are  Salvation,  and 
whose  gates  are  Praise. 

2c%.  Let  us  attend  to  the  evils  of  the  city  which 
call  for  Christian  tears,  and  for  something  else 
than  tears. 

It  is  said,  "  Jesus  beheld  the  city,"  and  now, 
turning  our  eyes  from  Jerusalem,  let  us  be 
hold  this  city.  Ere  the  heat  of  day  has  cast  a 
misty  veil  upon  the  scene,  or  ten  thousand 
household  fires  have  polluted  the  transparent 


ITS  SIXS  AND   SORROWS.  25 

air,  I  take  a  stranger,  to  whom  our  city  pre 
sents  its  beauties  in  all  the  charms  of  novelty, 
and  conducting  his  steps  to  yonder  rocky  ram 
part,  or  some  neighboring  summit,  I  bid  him 
look.  Our  ancient  capital  sits  proudly 
throned  upon  her  romantic  hills.  Gothic 
towers  and  Grecian  temples,  palace,  castle, 
spires,  domes,  monuments  and  verdant  gar 
dens,  picturesquely  mingled,  are  spread  out 
beneath  his  eye ;  and  when  rising  from  the 
waves  of  the  neighboring  ocean,  that  with  am 
orous  arms  embraces  the  land,  the  sun  blazes 
up  to  bathe  all  in  golden  light,  he  bursts  into 
admiration,  and  pronounces  the  scene,  as  well 
he  may,  "  the  perfection  of  beauty."  Wher 
ever  he  sweeps  his  eye,  he  finds  a  point  of 
view  to  claim  his  admiration.  There  seems 
nothing  here  to  weep  for.  "What  rare  variety 
of  hill  and  hollow !  What  a  happy  combina 
tion  of  ancient  and  modern  architecture  ! 
Here,  two  distant  ages  gaze  at  each  other 
across  the  intervening  valley,  while  there,  fit 
ornament  of  a  lone  Highland  glen,  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  city,  crowned  with  cannon,  and 


26  THE  CITY: 

reverberating  the  roar  of  business,  stands  a 
craggy  rock,  proud  emblem  of  our  country's 
strength  and  independence.  What  scene  so 
worthy  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  Jew 
exclaimed,  as  he  surveyed  Jerusalem  from  the 
top  of  Olivet: — "Beautiful  for  situation,  the 
joy  of  the  whole  earth  is  Mount  Zion." 

But  let  our  stranger  be  a  man  of  piety  as 
well  as  a  man  of  taste,  and  he  will  love  the 
city  for  its  Sabbaths,  more  than  for  its  scenery. 
No  loud  street  cries,  nor  wheels  of  business  or 
of  pleasure,  harshly  grinding  on  holy  ears, 
disturb  the  peace  of  the  hallowed  morning,  or 
scare  thoughts  of  heaven  from  his  pillow.  If 
music  awakes  him,  it  is  the  song  of  birds  that 
from  neighboring  gardens  call  the  sleeping 
city  to  arise,  and  join  with  nature  in  the 
praises  of  her  God.  A  serene  silence  fills  the 
street,  and  leaves  him  to  hear  the  footfall  of  a 
solitary  passenger  on  the  unfrequented  pave 
ment.  The  morning  meal  and  worship  over, 
the  chime  of  Sabbath  bells  bursts  upon  his 
ear,  accompanied  with  the  tread  of  many  feet 
outside.  He  leaves  the  house  with  us  to  seek 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  27 

the  house  of  God.  An  hour  ago  these  streets 
were  empty,  but  now  such  throngs  are  crowd 
ing  them  as  neither  the  six  days'  business  nor 
pleasure  calls  forth.  Decency  sits  upon  all 
faces;  devoutness  upon  many.  Laughing 
childhood  looks  unusually  grave,  and  curbing 
in  its  playful  spirit,  walks  with  a  thoughtful 
air.  JSTo  rude  manners,  no  laughter  that  be 
speaks  the  vacant  mind,  no  gay  conversation 
disturbs  the  ear,  or  ill  accords  with  the  aspect 
of  a  people  who  look  as  if  they  were  bent  on 
some  lofty  purpose — to  be  engaged  in  some 
solemn  yet  not  unhappy  work.  Their  faces 
give  the  lie  to  a  common  scandal.  They  look 
serious,  but  not  sour— they  wear  an  air  of 
gravity,  but  not  of  gloom.  Imagine  that  our 
stranger  has  come  from  a  land—from  a  city, 
such  as  Paris,  for  instance— where  it  may  be 
said  of  the  door  of  the  church,  as  of  the 
"strait  gate,"  "few  there  be  that  find  it;" 
where  Sabbath  bells  are  drowned  in  the  roar 
of  business,  where  labor  only  leaves  the  streets 
to  give  place  to  gaiety,  and  make  room  for  the 
dance  of  pleasure ;  where  the  workman  lays 


28  THE  CITY: 

down  his  tools,  and  the  merchant  locks  his 
door  to  whirl  away  the  evening  in  Sunday 
ball-rooms,  or  applaud  in  the  crowded  theatre. 
With  what  astonishment  he  gazes  on  the 
crowd.  Onward  it  sweeps,  by  the  closed 
doors  and  windows  of  every  place  of  business, 
to  discharge  itself  by  different  streams  into 
more  than  a  hundred  churches,  and  leave 
the  thoroughfares  to  resume  the  aspect  of  a 
"  deserted  city,"  until  the  close  of  holy  ser 
vices  again  pours  forth  the  living  tide — all 
setting  homewards,  many,  we  trust,  heaven 
wards. 

Such  is  the  scene  our  city  presents  on  Sab 
bath  days.  Long  may  it  continue.  Behold 
ing  the  city  thus,  our  stranger  sees  nothing  to 
deplore.  On  the  contrary,  as  David  in  his  ex 
ile  envied  the  swallow  which  had  her  nest  by 
the  altar,  and  could  fly  on  joyous  wing  at  all 
times  into  the  house  of  God,  he  envies  us  our 
Scottish  Sabbaths,  and  land  of  precious  priv 
ileges.  Of  a  city  where  God  is  so  honored, 
his  day  is  so  hallowed,  his  temples  are  so 
thronged,  he  is  ready  to  say,  "  The  Lord  hath 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  29 

chosen  Zion,  he  hath  desired  it  for  his  habita 
tion.  This  is  my  rest  for  ever ;  here  will  I 
dwell." 

Such  is  the  aspect  in  which  the  city  may  be 
presented.  But,  like  the  famed  shield,  which, 
because  they  saw  it  from  opposite  sides,  one 
man  asserted  to  be  made  of  silver,  and  an 
other  of  inferior  metal,  it  presents  two  widely 
different  aspects.  Let  us  turn  it  round,  and 
look  on  the  other  side. 

I  know,  and  I  bless  God  for  it,  that  there  is 
much  good,  that  there  is  a  more  than  ordinary 
proportion  of  godly  people  within  our  walls. 
No  sojourner  has  to  tremble  here,  as  Abraham 
did  in  Gerar,  saying,  "  Surely  the  fear  of  God 
is  not  in  this  place."  I  will  venture  to  say 
that  no  city  of  its  population  and  extent  con 
tains  more,  few,  indeed,  so  many,  of  those  who 
are  the  light  of  the  world,  and  the  salt  of  the 
earth.  In  no  large  city,  perhaps,  is  the  Sab 
bath  so  well  observed,  and  will  there  be  found 
such  a  proportion  of  the  people  in  the  regular 
habit  of  attending  a  house  of  God.  If  the 
number  of  our  churches  may  be  taken  as  a 
3* 


30  THE  CITY: 

test  of  piety,  if  the  number  of  our  hospitals 
and  asylums  may  be  taken  as  a  guage  of  be 
nevolence,  if  the  number  of  our  schools  and 
colleges  may  be  taken  as  a  standard  of  intelli 
gence,  then,  more  than  for  its  romantic  beauty 
and  picturesque  position,  it  bears  away  the 
palm  from  all  rival  capitals,  and  sits  en 
throned  and  unchallenged  as  "  Queen  of 
Cities."  Now  I  know  all  that.  Yet,  as  there 
are  scenes  in  nature  where  sylvan  beauty  is 
associated  with  features  of  a  stern  and  savage 
character,  as  I  have  seen  a  lovely  lake,  with 
its  gems  of  islands,  lie  sleeping  under  the 
shadow,  while  the  woodbine,  and  holly,  and 
evergreen  ivy  clothed  the  feet  of  a  mountain 
which  was  rent  into  gloomy  gorges,  and  reared 
its  thunder-riven,  naked  peaks  into  the  sky, 
there  is  much  that  is  vicious  amid  all  the 
grace,  and  much  that  is  impious  amid  all  the 
piety  of  our  city.  If  that  is  true  of  this  city, 
let  the  public  be  assured  that  it  is  no  less  true 
of  every  large  city  in  the  kingdom.  Which 
of  them  shall  say  to  us,  "  Stand  aside,  I  am 
holier  than  thou  ?" 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  31 

I  once  heard  a  venerable  minister,  when  lie 
came  in  the  course  of  his  public  prayers  to  ask 
the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  our  town,  pray 
that  God  would  have  mercy  upon  this  great 
and  wicked  city.  Now  I  can  fancy  that  the 
stranger  whom  we  have  conducted  through 
its  streets  on  the  Sabbath,  and  who  has  only 
mingled  in  its  serious  and  most  select  society, 
would  listen  with  astonishment  to  such  an  ac 
count  of  us,  either  from  the  pulpit  or  any 
where  else.  It  gave  offence,  deep  offence,  to 
some  who  were  proud  of  their  native  place. 
Yet,  whether  the  charge  excite  surprise  or  of 
fence,  this  is  a  wicked  as  well  as  a  great  city. 
And  he  heals  "  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of 
God's  people  slightly,"  he  is  "  a  dumb  dog  that 
cannot  bark,"  who  conceals  that  fact  from 
either  himself  or  others. 

Under  a  fair  and  beautiful  exterior,  there  is 
an  extent  of  corruption ,  vile  corruption,  loath 
some  corruption,  which  has  only  to  be  laid 
bare  to  astonish  all,  and,  I  believe,  to  sicken 
man}-.  Propriety  forbids  details.  Ordinary 
modesty,  not  to  say  sensitive  delicacy,  would 


32  THE  CITY: 

shrink  from  them.     Otherwise  I  could  raise  a 
curtain,  I  could  reveal  that  which  would  make 
your  hair  stand  on  end.     Well  may  godly  pa 
rents  tremble  for  the  virtue  of  their  children, 
and  every  holy  mother,  taking  alarm,  gather 
them  beneath  her  wings,  as   the  moor  bird 
does  her    helpless    brood  when    hawks    are 
screaming  in  the  sky.     I  tell  you  who  are  pa 
rents,  you  who  are  the  guardians  of  youth, 
that  you  have  more  need  to  keep  an  eye  on 
the  company  and  hours  of  your  children,  than 
look  to  the  bolts  and  bars  you  trust  to  for  pro 
tection  against  housebreakers  and  midnight- 
robbers.      We  have   heard  much   of   these. 
Alive  to  what   affects  the   security  of  their 
property,  the  public  have  been  seized  with 
alarm,  and  houses,  if  not  streets,  are  barricad 
ed.     But  there  is  more  in  peril  than  your  gold 
and  silver.     There  is  something  bettor  worth 
guarding,  and  more  needing  to  be  guarded, 
than  anything  which  iron-barred  shutters  can 
secure,  or  watchmen  protect.     There  are  more 
dangerous  characters  than  robbers  prowling 
about  our  town,  and  walking  unchallenged 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  33 

on  our  streets — permitted  by  our  laws  to  do 
what  they  dare  not  in  Paris  or  Berlin,  to  pur 
sue  their  infamous  occupation  with  barefaced, 
and  shameless,  and  bold  effrontery.  The 
sword,  which  should  be  a  terror  to  evil-doers, 
rusts  in  its  sheath.  And  when  vice  is  allowed 
so  to  parade  our  streets  as  to  interfere  with 
the  freedom  of  virtuous  families,  and  so  to 
establish  herself  among  us,  as,  by  creating  the 
worst  of  all  nuisances,  to  destroy  the  property 
of  a  neighborhood,  surely  the  substance  of 
liberty  is  sacrificed  to  its  shadow,  and  the  evil 
doer  protected  at  the  expense  of  the  good. 

Some  of  us  are  about  to  make  a  new  effort 
for  the  reclamation  of  fallen  woman,  and  the 
protection  of  such  as  are  willing,  Magdalene- 
like,  to  bathe  Christ's  feet  with  tears,  and 
wash  away  their  deep  sins  in  his  blood./  As  a 
preliminary  step  to  this  Christian  enterprise, 
we  have  procured  accurate  statistics  of  the  ex 
tent  of  this  great  sin  and  sorrow  of  our  large 
cities.  Of  them,  I  will  say  nothing  more  than 
this,  that,  while  they^  were  read,  men  held 
down  their  heads  with  shame,  or  held  up  their 


34  THE   CITY: 

hands  in  horror,  or  burst  out  into  expressions 
of  deep  indignation. 

By  that  ravening  wolf  that  wastes  our  folds, 
I  had  seen  one  and  another,  and  another,  and 
another  lamb  plucked  out  of  this  very  flock. 
I  had  seen  the  once  fair  and  promising  flowers 
that  I  had  cultivated  in  this  very  garden  cast 
forth,  and,  as  vilest  weeds,  trodden  in  the 
mire  of  the  public  streets.  I  had  seen  the  fall 
of  a  daughter — that  bitterest  of  domestic  mis 
eries — blanch  a  mother's  head,  and,  still  more 
terrible  to  look  on,  turn  a  father's  heart  into 
stone.  I  had  known  how  a  mother,  when  we 
all  were  sleeping  in  peace,  with  weary  foot 
and  weeping  eyes,  had  gone,  Christ-like,  up 
and  down  these  streets — searching  many  a 
den  of  sin  to  seek  and  save  her  lost  one.  I 
had  seen  enough  to  make  a  man  exclaim,  with 
Jeremiah,  "  0 !  that  mine  eyes  were  tears, 
and  mine  head  a  fountain  of  waters,  that  I 
might  weep  day  and  night  for  the  daughter 
of  my  people  !"  But  never,  never  had  we  so 
much  as  fancied  the  extent  and  horrors  of  this 
evil,  the  number  of  short-lived  victims  it  de- 


ITS  SINS  AND   SOBBOWS.  35 

vours,  the  bold  daring  with  which  the  ac 
cursed  trade  is  pursued,  the  invisible  nets  that 
are  spread  across  the  path  of  unsuspecting  in 
nocence,  the  fiendishly-ingenious  methods 
which  are  plied  to  snare  virtue,  what  masks 
of  friendship  are  worn,  what  cunning  arts  of 
apparent  kindness  resorted  to  that  vice  may 
get  the  victims  within  her  grasp,  and  drag 
them  down  to  hell !  I  do  believe  that  were 
the  villainy  and  iniquity  that  are  working  and 
festering  here  and  elsewhere — in  every  such 
large  city — laid  bare  before  the  eyes  of  public 
virtue,  nothing  would  restrain  its  indignation. 
Men  would  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands. 
Men  would  be  a  law  unto  themselves ;  and  by 
what  many  might  condemn  as  illegal,  but  oth 
ers  would  applaud  as  a  virtuous  outbreak, 
they  would  s \veep  our  cities  clean  of  these 
panderers  of  vice,  and  dens  of  iniquity. 

It  is  not  of  property,  but  of  virtue,  that 
families  are  plundered.  It  is  not  life,  but 
souls,  that  are  murdered  among  us.  Crimes 
are  done  that  to  my  eye  cast  into  the  shade 
the  guilt  of  him  who,  having  through  a  trade 


36  THE  CITY: 

of  murder  supplied  subjects  for  the  dissecting- 
room,  was  received  on  the  scaffold  by  the  roar 
of  a  maddened  crowd,  and  launched  into  eter 
nity  amid  shouts  of  public  indignation.  That 
old  legend  of  a  monster,  to  satisfy  whose  vora 
cious  appetite  a  city  had  year  by  year  to 
sacrifice  a  number  of  its  virgins,  who,  amid 
the  lamentations  of  their  mothers  and  the 
grief  of  their  kindred,  were  led  away  trem 
bling  to  his  bloody  den,  is  no  fable  here. 
That  monster  is  amongst  us.  And  if  there  is 
no  other  way  of  calling  forth  some  champions 
to  do  him  battle,  of  rousing  the  public  from 
their  supineness,  of  stirring  up  the  minister  in 
the  pulpit  to  draw  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and 
the  magistrate  on  the  bench  to  draw  the  sword 
of  the  state,  it  may  be  necessary  to  throw  this 
report  out  of  its  present  secresy,  and  leave  it 
to  burst  upon  the  city  like  a  shell. 

I  am  guilty  of  no  exaggeration.  I  ask  you, 
meanwhile,  to  believe  that — and  that,  with  all 
our  apparent  goodness,  there  lies  beneath  the 
surface  much  which  no  Christian  man  could 
behold,  without — like  our  pure  and  pitiful 


ITS  SINS  AND   SOKROWS.  37 

Saviour — weeping  over  it.  I  know  enough 
to  call  upon  the  young  to  shun  the  associate, 
who  is  infected  with  vice,  more  than  the  one 
infected  with  plague  or  deadly  fever.  Keep 
away  from  them  that  are  going  down  to  hell, 
more  than  from  the  grasp  of  a  drowning  man. 
"My  son,  hear  the  instruction  of  thy  father, 
and  forsake  not  the  law  of  thy  mother."  "  If 
sinners  entice  thee,  consent  thou  not."  "  Keep 
thy  heart  with  all  diligence."  "Ponder  the 
path  of  thy  feet,"  that  they  may  never  follow 
one  of  whom  it  is  written — "  Her  feet  go  down 
to  death,  her  steps  take  hold  on  hell." 

I  also  know  enough  to  implore  parents, 
most  prayerfully,  to  commit  their  children  to 
the  keeping  of  an'  all-present  God.  Guard 
them  sedulously.  Fold  them  early.  Before 
the  night  brings  out  the  ravenous  wolf,  and 
the  wily  fox,  and  the  roaring  lion,  have  all 
your  lambs  at  home.  Make  it  a  bright,  cheer 
ful  home.  Mingle  firmness  with  kindness. 
And  from  late  hours,  from  dangerous  com 
panions,  from  nightly  scenes  of  pleasure  and 

amusement,  more  carefully  keep  your  children 
4 


38          THE  CITY:    ITS  SINS  AND  SOKROWS. 

than  you  bolt  door  or  window  against  those, 
who  can  but  plunder  your  house  of  property, 
that  is  of  infinitely  less  value  than  your 
domestic  purity,  of  jewels,  infinitely  less  pre 
cious  than  your  children's  souls. 


SERMON    II.  • 

"  He  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it."— LUKE  xix.  41. 

YY7ITHOUT  driver,  without  band  to  curb 
VV  or  guide  him,  a  startled,  maddened  horse, 
with  snowy  foam  speckling  his  mane,  and  the 
fire  flashing  from  his  heels,  was  once  seen 
tearing  along  through  a  country  village.  He 
dragged  a  cart  behind  him.  A  little  child 
was  in  it,  who,  every  moment  in  danger  of 
being  dashed  upon  the  road,  clung  to  its  sides 
in  pale  terror.  A  woman,  as  it  passed,  shot 
from  her  doorway,  like  an  arrow  from  the 
bow-string.  With  outstretched  arms,  dishevel 
led  hair,  and  flying  feet,  she  followed  in  full 
pursuit,  filling  the  street  with  cries — that 
might  have  pierced  a  heart  of  stone — "  Save 
that  child  ;  save  that  child  1"  Whereupon  a 
man,  who  had  not  humanity  enough  to  join 
the  chase  and  swell  the  cry,  far  less  bravery 


40  THE  CITY: 

enough,  at  his  own  peril,  to  throw  himself 
across  the  path  and  seize  the  reins,  coolly 
turned  round  on  her  to  bid  her  cease  her 
cries,  saying,  "  Woman,  it  is  not  your  child." 
The  information  was  not  new  to  her.  She 
had  left  all  her  own  safe  in  their  nest  at 
home.  Nor  did  that  heartless  speech  for  a 
moment  arrest  her  step,  or  still  the  cry  of 
"  Save  that  child  ;  save  that  child  1" 

In  that  circumstance  we  have  more  than  a 
touching  example  of  the  tenderness  of  a 
woman's  heart.  It  illustrates  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel.  A  noble  and  generous  woman  !  She 
was  imbued  with  the  large  loving-heartedness 
that  is  unhappy  if  others  are  miserable,  that 
will  not  eat  its  own  bread  and  drink  its  own 
cup  alone,  that  is  not  content  to  be  safe  with 
out  also  saving.  There,  in  these  outstretched 
arms,  that  anxious  cry,  those  feet  that  hasten 
to  save,  you  see,  standing  out  in  beautiful  con 
trast  to  selfishness,  the  broad,  wide,  warm 
benevolence  of  the  gospel,  the  spirit  of  Cal 
vary,  the  mind  that  was  in  Jesus  Christ — and 
which,  let  me  add,  is  in  all  that  are  Jesus 


ITS  SIX'S  AND  SORROWS.  41 

Christ's.     This  furnishes  a  touchstone  for  test 
ing  a  religious  profession. 

A  man,  I  pray  you  to  observe,  may  be  a 
true  Christian,  who  falls  even  into  grievous 
sin.  Many  a  bark  with  sprung  masts,  and  torn 
sails,  and  shattered  bulwarks,  gains  the  port. 
And  many  a  man  gets  to  heaven  who  has  been 
all  but  wrecked.  Indeed,  "the  righteous 
scarcely  are  saved,"  and  the  vessel  which  has 
her  head  laid  heavenward,  keeping  careless 
watch,  and  thrown,  so  to  speak,  on  her  beam 
ends,  by  some  sudden  gust  of  temptation,  may 
all  but  founder.  In  Bible  story,  as  well  as  other 
records  of  Christian  experience,  how  many  sol 
emn  warnings  have  we  to  watch  and  pray ; 
how  much  that  rolls  out  the  loud  alarum, 
"  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed 
lest  he  fall."  We  do  not  say  that  a  Christian 
man  cannot  fall  into  sin.  Yet  it  is  one  thing 
to  fall  into  sin,  it  is  another  to  lie  in  it,  to  love 
it,  to  seek  it,  to  court  it,  to  pursue  it,  to  enjoy 
it — as  it  is  pursued  and  enjoyed  lay  those  who, 
in  place  of  rejecting  it,  "  like  gravel  in  the 
mouth,"  "  roll  it  as  a  sweet  morsel  under  their 
4* 


-42  THE   CITY: 

tongue."  It  is  one  thing,  being  overcome  of 
evil,  to  be  the  devil's  captive— bewitched,  be 
guiled,  caught  in  a  snare  and  cast  into  dark 
ness — and  another  to  be  a  base  deserter,  a  bold 
soldier,  fighting  in  the  ranks  of  Satan. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  excuse  or  even  palliate 
those  sins  in  good  men  which  crucify  the  Lord 
afresh,  and  inflict  the  deepest  wounds  upon  his 
bleeding  side.  Yet  the  sin,  which  has  set 
loose  many  a  ribald  tongue,  which  they  "  tell 
in  Gath,  and  publish  in  the  streets  of  Askelon," 
which  fills  the  church  with  grief,  and  makes 
the  world  ring  with  scandal,  which,  as  when 
some  shot  in  battle  dismounts  a  cannon,  or  ex 
plodes  a  magazine,  or  cuts  down  a  man  of 
mark,  is  hailed  by  the  enemy  with  shouts  of 
triumph,  even  such  a  sin  may  say  less  against 
a  man's  piety,  than  the  love  that  embraces  the 
lost,  and  a  deep  interest  in  the  best  welfare  of 
others,  say  for  it.  Look  at  Noah  beneath  the 
mantle  which  filial  piety  has  flung  over  him. 
Look  at  Peter  denying  his  master.  Look  at 
the  saintly  David  covered  with  blushes  and 
confusion,  and  cowering  under  the  fixed  and 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  43 

eagle  eye  of  him,  who  points  his  finger,  say 
ing,  "  Thou  art  the  man.  1"  Such  scenes,  even 
such  scenes  in  a  man's  life,  do  not  present  an 
aspect  of  character  incompatible  with  a  true 
and  genuine  piety.  But  such  an  aspect  is 
presented  by  many  a  decent  man  who  never 
brought  a  scandal  on  religion,  yet  never  be 
held  the  city  to  weep  over  it,  never  spent  one 
anxious  thought  on  any  interests  but  his  own, 
never  spared  a  tear  for  any  losses  but  his  own, 
never,  so  be  that  his  own  nest  was  warmly 
feathered,  troubled  himself  about  others' 
wants,  nor  cared  what  cnme  of  them,  if  he  ac 
complished  his  own  selfish  ends.  The  sins  of 
a  good  man  are  but  the  diseases  of  life — the 
irregular  palpitations  of  a  living  heart ;  but 
that  cold  indifference,  that  unfeeling  selfish 
ness — these  are  the  rigidity  and  frigidity  of 
death. 

I  remember  a  remark  which  once  dropped 
from  the  lips  of  an  aged  minister.  The  sub 
ject  of  his  discourse  was  our  Lord's  last  suf 
ferings.  And  when  he  narrated  how  they  had 
brought  him  to  Calvary  and  nailed  him  on 


44  THE  CITY: 

the  tree,  and  was  telling  how  the  impenitent 
thief  turned  on  his  cross — a  dying  man  to 
mock  a  dying  Saviour — he  stopped  to  remark, 
that  while  there  was  almost  no  sin  which  a 
child  of  God  might  not  fall  into,  there  was 
one  thing  which  he  had  never  read  of  a  good 
man  doing,  and  which  he  believed  no  good 
man  had  ever  done  or  would  do — he  would 
never  sit  in  the  scorner's  chair,  nor  make  a 
mock  of  piety.  And  another  such  test  of 
real  religion  this  subject  presents.  It  may  also 
be  employed  to  prove  the  truth  or  falsehood 
of  our  profession.  I  venture  to  affirm,  that 
however  great  his  faults  may  be,  no  man  of 
God,  no  man  animated  by  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ,  no  child  baptized  into  the  nature  as 
well  as  name  of  that  heavenly  Father,  who  is 
unwilling  that  any  should  perish — no  man 
allied  to  those  angelic  beings,  who  minister  to 
suffering  saints,  and  rejoice  in  the  conversion 
of  the  lowest  of  the  lost — no  man  imbued 
with  the  love  which,  to  save  the  most  wicked, 
most  worthless,  and  most  wretched  of  us,  left 
the  Father's  bosom  to  hang  in  infancy  on  a 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  45 

woman's  breast,  and  hang  in  death  on  a  bloody 
tree — will  refuse  to  lend  me  a  willing  ear, 
when  I  lay  open  the  sores  and  sorrows,  and 
plead  for  the  souls  of  men.  Of  too  many  this 
may  be  true  : — "  They  lie  upon  beds  of  ivory, 
and  stretch  themselves  upon  their  couches, 
and  eat  the  lambs  out  of  the  flock,  and  the 
calves  out  of  the  midst  of  the  stall ;  they 
chant  to  the  sound  of  the  viol,  and  invent  to 
themselves  instruments  of  music,  like  David ; 
they  drink  wine  in  bowls,  and  anoint  them 
selves  with  the  chief  ointments,  but  they  are 
not  grieved  for  the  affliction  of  Joseph."  But 
I  cast  myself  with  confidence  upon  God's 
people.  I  resume  my  subject,  and  proceed  to 
set  forth  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  our  cities — 
fully  assured  that  I  shall  not  meet  from  lips 
which  the  altar-coal  has  touched,  the  words 
with  which  the  murderers  of  our  Lord  thrust 
forth  the  traitor — "  What  is  that  to  us?  See 
thou  to  that." 

II.  The  intemperance   of  the   city — or,  to 
use   a  plainer  term,  to  call. jjaiagg^v^ their 

/^"6»  TH*^      $^\ 

1  /».       e»      -wJ 


4:6  THE  CITY: 

right  names,  to  be  done  with  sacrificing  men's 
souls  and  public  morals  to  a  spurious  delicacy, 
to  make  vice  as  disgusting  and  detestable  as 
possible,  to  rub  off  the  paint  that  conceals  the 
rotten  cheek,  let  me  say,  in  plain  broad  Saxon, 
its  Drunkenness. 

Our  subject  is  one  for  the  pulpit.  From 
preachers  it  claims  more  notice  and  warning, 
more  plain  denunciation  and  earnest  pleading, 
than,  perhaps,  it  usually  receives.  Some 
might  be  better  pleased  were  I,  instead  of 
conducting  them  through  loathsome  scenes,  to 
be  their  guide  into  the  temple — to  show  them, 
in  succession,  the  sublime  mysteries  of  our 
faith.  But  what  saith  the  Lord:  "Son  of 
Man,  I  have  set  thee  a  watchman  unto  the 
house  of  Israel,  therefore  thou  shalt  hear  the 
word  from  my  moutb,  and  warn  them  from 
me.  When  I  say  unto  the  wicked  man,  Thou 
shalt  surely  die,  if  thou  dost  not  speak  to 
warn  the  wicked  man  from  his  way,  that 
wicked,  man  shall  die  in  his  iniquity,  but  his 
blood  will  I  require  at  thine  hand."  Again, 
what  saith  the  Lord  :  "  Set  the  trumpet  to  thy 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  47 

mouth.  Blow  ye  the  trumpet  in  Zion,  and 
sound  an  alarm  in  my  holy  mountain."  Are 
people  concerned  for  the  honor  of  the  temple  ? 
How  can  they  so  well  express  this  feeling  as 
by  attempting  with  Jesus  to  purify  its  courts  ? 
Is  the  Lord,  as  some  think,  coming  ?  Let  us 
go  forth,  like  John  Baptist — forerunners  to 
prepare  his  way.  Have  we  asked  of  them 
who  keep  ward  and  watch  on  the  towers  of 
Zion,  "Watchman,  what  of  the  night? 
Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ?"  and  got  back 
the  startling  answer,  "The  morning  cometh 
and  also  the  night  ?;'  The  more  need  have  we 
to  abandon  all  airy  speculation,  and  betake 
ourselves  to  the  practical  work  of  setting  heart 
and  house,  town  and  country,  church  and 
stats  in  order.  Let  us  all  get  ready,  and  get 
all  things  ready  for  Christ's  second  coming. 
Laying  aside  the  telescopes  which  we  had 
turned  in  the  expected  direction,  let  us  gird 
up  our  loins,  go  down  into  the  field  of  work, 
make  straight  what  is  crooked,  and  smooth 
what  is  rough,  and,  preparing  his  way,  remove 


48  THE  CITY: 

whatever  would  offend  the  eye  of  our  coming 
King. 

The  apostles  were  not  content  to  preach 
only  what  are  called  doctrinal  discourses.  In 
the  texture  both  of  their  sermons  and  epistles, 
they  wove  up  doctrine  and  duty  together. 
These  were  mingled  as  the  woof  and  warp  of 
that  loom,  where  the  flying  shuttle  weaves  the 
sail  with  which  men  catch  the  winds  of  heav 
en,  and  impel  the  bark  onwards  to  her  desired 
haven.  We  see  these  inspired  preachers  com 
ing  down  to  the  common  business  and  practi 
cal  duties  of  life — down  from  the  throne  of 
God — from  the  heights  of  the  cross — from  re 
gions  of  such  high  speculation,  that  Peter 
owns  himself  to  have  lost  sight  of  Paul,  just 
as  in  summer  day,  when  watching  the  lark  as 
she  rose  from  the  dewy  grass,  we  have  seen 
her  mount  up  on  untiring  wing,  till  she  be 
came  a  mere  dark  speck  upon  the  blue  sky, 
and  then,  although  her  song  still  came  ringing 
down,  vanished  from  our  field  of  vision. 
From  heights  so  lofty  the  men,  who  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  descended  to  expa- 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  49 

tiate  on  the  most  common  topics  that  belong 
to  practical  piety.  They  taught  masters  how 
to  rule,  and  servants  how  to  work.  They 
taught  husbands  how  to  love,  and  children 
how  to  obey.  They  laid  down  rules  for  a 
bishop's  table.  They  no  more  thought  it  be 
neath  their  dignity  to  tell  young  women  how 
to  attire  their  heads  and  dress  their  hair,  than 
to  warn  young  men  to  "  flee  youthful  lusts." 
They  lifted  up  their  warning  against  the  sins 
of  ordinary  life.  They  raised  beacons  on 
every  quicksand  and  sunken  rock.  They 
buoyed  out  the  channel  of  salvation.  De 
scribing  with  downright  plainness  those  fruits 
of  the  flesh  which  exclude  from  the  kingdom, 
they  did  not  sacrifice  God's  truth,  human  vir 
tue,  and  precious  souls  upon  the  altar  of  a 
false  and  spurious  delicacy.  They  went  in 
among  corruption,  like  the  sunbeam  which 
shows  it,  but  suffers  no  taint  through  the  con 
tact.  Descending  from  the  loftiest  to  the  low 
liest  subjects,  theirs  was  the  course  of  the 
eagle,  which,  now  on  cloud- cleaving  wing, 
mounts  upwards — soaring  out  of  sight — and 


50  THE  CITY: 

now  sweeps  down  to  brush  the  heather,  or  set 
tle  in  her  rocky  nest.  Overleaping  all  the 
laws  of  spurious  delicacy,  theirs  was  the  noble 
spirit  of  the  Koman.  Men  placed  him  at  the 
bar  of  his  country.  They  charged  him  with  a 
.violation  of  her  laws.  Fresh  from  the  fight, 
covered  with  the  blood  of  a  battle-field  where 
he  had  led  his  country's  armies  to  victory,  he 
replied,  "  I  have  broken  the  law,  but  I  have 
saved  the  state."  And  could  I,  by  God's  bless 
ing,  save  a  sinner,  could  I  pluck  some  perish 
ing  one  from  ruin,  could  I  successfully  warn 
that  young  man  or  young  woman  who,  all  un 
conscious  of  their  danger,  are  drawing  near 
the  brink  of  destruction,  I  would  throw  deli 
cacy  to  the  winds,  saying,  I  have  broken  its 
laws,  but  I  have  saved  a  soul. 

With  what  plainness  of  speech  did  Paul 
warn  !  with  what  truth  and  tenderness  did  he 
plead!  He  looks  on  sinners  as  a  trembling 
mother  on  her  rash  boy,  when  hanging  half 
way  over  some  beetling  cliff,  he  stretches 
down  his  hand  to  pluck  from  the  rock  its  wild 
and  withering  flowers.  "  As  my  beloved 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  51 

sons,"  Paul  cries,  "  I  warn  you."     He  exhorts 
Timothy  to  rebuke  "in  season  and  out  of  sea 
son."   He  eschews  those  general  denunciations 
of  sin  that  are  as  little  felt  as  general  confes 
sions  of  it  are ;  that,  like  things  with  broad 
blunt  points,  neither  pierce  the  skin  nor  pene 
trate  the  sore.     The  apostle  enters  into  partic 
ulars.     One  by  one,  name  by  name,  sin  by 
sin,  he  writes  out,  on  several  occasions,  the 
long    black    catalogue  of    prevailing    vices. 
And  in  these,  as  if,  like  the  poisoned  garment 
that  stuck  to  Hercules,  it  could  not  be  plucked 
from  the  body  of  humanity,  this  vice  of  drunk 
enness—the  sin,  the  shame,  the  weakness  of 
our  nation— finds  a  never  failing  and  promi-  • 
nent  place.     It  is  the  weakness  as  well  as  sin 
and  shame  of  our  nation.     The  world  knows 
that.     Other  nations  taunt  us  with  that.     NOT 
do   scenes  at   home   allow  me   to  forget  the 
strange  but  stinging  remark  of  a  foreigner 
who  said,  "It  is  a  blessed  thing  for  the  world 
that  you  Anglo-Saxons  are  a  drunken  race. 
Such  are  your  powers,  and  energy,  and  talent, 
that  otherwise  you  would  have  become  mas- 


62  THE  CITY: 

ters  of  the  world  !"     So  much  for  taking  up 
the  subject.     Now  let  us  look  — 

1.  To  the  extent  of  this  vice. 

First,  In  our  country.  No  good  cause  has 
ever  but  suffered  from  injudicious  zeal  and 
extravagant  statements.  Eegard  for  truth  and 
my  very  anxiety  to  see  this  evil  arrested, 
unite  in  preventing  me  from  indulging  in 
exaggeration — were  it  possible  here  to  exag 
gerate.  I  say  possible  to  exaggerate ;  for 
what  flight  of  fancy,  what  bold  strokes  of 
painting,  what  graphic  powers  of  description, 
could  convey  any  adequate  idea  of  the  evils 
and  sorrows  that  march  in  the  train  of  this 
direful,  and  most  detestable  vice?  Standing 
on  the  surf-beaten  shore,  when  ocean,  lashed 
by  the  tempest  into  foaming  rage,  was  up  in 
her  angry  might,  I  have  seen  a  spectacle  so 
grand ;  and  where  she  couched  in  the  valley, 
arrayed  in  a  gay  robe  of  summer  flowers,  I 
have  seen  nature  so  beautiful ;  and  whore  rat 
tling  thunders  mingled  with  the  roar  of  the 
avalanche,  while  high  above  the  dark  myste- 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  53 

rious  gorge,  within  which  the  battle  of  elements 
was  waging,  rose  clear  and  serene  untrodden 
peaks  of  eternal  snow,  I  have  looked  upon 
scenes  so  sublime,  as  to  pass  description.  Nor 
color  nor  words  can  convey  an  adequate  idea 
of  them.  To  be  understood  they  must  be 
visited,  to  be  felt  they  must  be  seen. 

Incredible  as  it  may  appear,  this  remark  is 
no  less  true  of  many  regions  of  sorrow,  and 
starvation,  and  disease,  and  vice,  and  devilry, 
and  death,  that  the  smoke-stained  walls  of 
these  diogy  houses  hide  from  common  view. 
These  formed  for  years  the  painful  field  of  my 
labors.  Let  no  man  fancy  that  we  select  the 
worst  cases,  that  we  present  the  worst  side  of 
the  picture  before  them.  Believe  me,  it  is  im 
possible  to  exaggerate,  impossible  even  truth 
fully  to  paint  the  effect  of  this  vice  either  on 
those  who  are  addicted  to  it,  or  those  who 
suffer  from  it — crushed  husbands,  broken 
hearted  wives,  and  most  of  all,  those  poor 
innocent  children  that  are  dying  under  cruelty 
and  starvation,  that  shiver  in  their  rags  upon 
our  streets,  that  walk  the  winter  snows  witb 
5* 


54  THE  CITY: 

naked  feet,  and  with  their  matted  hair,  and 
hollow  cheeks,  and  sunken  eyes,  and  sallow 
countenances,  glare  out  on  us,  wild  and  savage- 
like,  from  these  patched  and  dusty  windows. 
Besides,  if  the  extent  of  this  evil  has  been  ex 
aggerated,  it  is  a  fault  that  may  be  pardoned. 
It  is  a  failing  that  "  leans  to  virtue's  side." 
Perhaps  she  exaggerates  his  danger,  but  who 
quarrels  with  the  mother,  whose  affection  for 
her  sailor  boy  keeps  her  tossing  on  a  sleepless 
pillow,  praying  through  the  long  hours  of  a 
stormy  night,  as  her  busy  imagination  fancies 
that  in  that  wild  shriek  of  the  fitful  wind  she 
hears  his  drowning  cry  ?  When  the  nursery 
only  has  caught  fire,  and  a  faithful  domestic, 
plucking  the  babe  from  a  burning  cradle, 
rushes  into  your  chamber,  and  makes  you 
leap  to  the  cry — the  house  is  all  on  fire ;  will 
he,  that  hurries  away  to  save  the  rest,  chal 
lenge  the  exaggeration  ?  It  is  as  natural  to 
earnestness  of  purpose  and  depth  of  feeling, 
as  a  blush  to  shame,  or  a  smile  to  happiness, 
or  the  flash  of  the  eye  to  anger. 

I  admit,  indeed  I  assert,  that,  in  regard  to 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  55 

our  own  division  of  the  island,  the  extent  of 
this  evil  has  been  exaggerated.  Not  many 
years  ago,  a  distinguished  patriot  rose  in  the 
Commons'  House  of  Parliament,  and  mourn 
ing  over  his  fatherland — for  he  had  drawn  his 
first  breath  on  this  side  of  the  Border — de 
clared  that  Scotland  was  the  most  drunken 
country,  and  the  Scotch  the  most  drunken 
nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  I  am  well 
aware  that  with  all  the  superior  privileges 
which  are  our  boast,  we  cannot  hold  up  an 
unabashed  and  unblushing  face  before  France, 
or  Germany,  or  Switzerland.  In  the  course 
of  last  summer,  I  spent  seven  weeks  in  these 
countries.  I  saw  Paris  at  a  time  of  national 
rejoicing,  the  population  of  that  gay  city  all 
let  loose  from  business  to  pursue  pleasure  at 
their  will.  If  in  that  mighty  crowd  there 
were  gloomy  looks  turned  on  the  royal  pomp 
and  serried  regiments  that  conducted  to  his 
baptism  the  infant  heir  of  a  throne,  which, 
unlike  our  Queen's,  firmly  based  on  the  affec 
tions  of  the  people,  sits  unsteadily  on  the  rim 
of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  the  eye  detected  no 


56  THE   CITY: 

drunkard.  If  some  were  sullen,  all  were 
sober ;  and  that  feature  characterized  also 
those  dangerous  quarters  of  the  city,  where 
the  lowest  classes  resided,  where  rebellions 
had  been  hatched,  and  volcanic  revolutions 
had  burst  forth — burying  throne  and  altars 
in  a  common  ruin.  I  was  also  in  Brussels 
during  three  days  of  prolonged  public  fetes. 
All  its  people  were  abroad  in  the  streets,  and 
the  throng  was  swelled  by  some  fifty  thousand 
who  had  poured  into  the  capital  from  the 
various  cities  of  the  kingdom.  Yet,  in  these 
different  kingdoms,  neither  in  their  mountain 
hamlets,  nor  crowded  cities,  were  there  pre 
sented  so  many  cases  of  intemperance  in  these 
seven  weeks,  as  may  be  seen  almost  any  day 
in  Edinburgh,  or  other  large  city  of  our  island, 
in  seven  short  hours. 

Yet  it  is  not  true  that  Scotland  is  the  most 
drunken  country  in  the  world.  This  is  a  mis- 
statement.  As  a  lover  of  my  country,  I  am 
anxious  to  deny  it,  and  still  more  anxious  to 
deny  it,  because  I  see  that  men  have  taken 
occasion  from  it  to  sneer  at  our  religion. 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  57 

They  allege,  that  our  strict  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  is  the  cause  of  our  intemperance. 
They  say,  that  if  we  would  sanction  public 
amusements,  and  open  our  theatres  on  the 
Lord's  day,  we  would  check  this  evil,  and 
nurse  our  people  up  in  habits  of  sobriety. 
Much  as  I  value  them,  I  would  not  defend 
our  Sabbath  observances  at  the  expense  of 
truth.  I  would  not  blacken  other  countries 
to  make  my  own  look  fair.  But  the  state 
ment  is  not  consistent  with  fact.  The  Lap 
land  mother  pours  strong  brandy  over  the 
throat  of  her-  sucking  child.  In  the  northern 
parts  of  Europe,  among  the  nations  who  in 
habit  its  colder  regions,  deep  drinking  is  as 
rife  as  it  is  here.  Shall  we  cross  the  channel  ? 
In  Ireland  I  saw  more  well-to-do-like  men 
and  women  leaving  a  market  town  on  an 
ordinary  market  day  with  unsteady  step, 
than  I  ever  saw  on  a  similar  occasion  on 
this  side  the  Irish  channel.  Shall  we  cross 
the  Border  ?  During  occasional  visits  to  Lon 
don,  I  have  seen  drunkenness  on  a  scale  far 
more  gigantic  than  during  a  residence  of 


58  THE  CITY: 

twenty  years,  I  ever  saw  it  in  the  lowest 
districts  of  this  city.  In  the  charges  of  the 
English  judges,  who  has  not  read  how  they 
attribute  almost  all  the  crimes  of  their  country, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  baneful  influ 
ences  of  drink?  I  have  been  present  in 
England's  high  courts  of  justice,  and  when 
panel  succeeded  panel  at  the  bar,  the  course 
of  the  trials  brought  out  the  fact,  that  the 
beer-shops  were  in  almost  every  case  con 
nected  with  the  crimes. 

This  false  charge,  let  me  remark;  has  arisen 
from  circumstances,  which  are  rather  credita 
ble  to  us  than  otherwise.  I  will  explain  that. 
There  is  a  city  in  England,  which  contains  a 
larger  population  than  our  own;  and  yet  it 
appeared  from  the  police  reports  that  it  pre 
sented  three  times  fewer  cases  of  drunkenness. 
This  seemed  to  crown  them  with  glory,  and 
cover  us  with  shame.  But  upon  farther  in 
quiry,  we  found  that  they  had  no  right  to  the 
laurel  There  the  police  conduct  the  drunk 
ard  home,  and  thus  his  case  does  not  appear 
upon  record ;  here,  on  the  other  hand,  regard- 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  59 

ed  as  a  public  nuisance,  deserving  no  such 
gentle  treatment,  he  is  conducted  to  the  police 
office,  and  so  gets  his  case  entered  in  our  sta 
tistics  of  crime.  Thus,  as  you  will  see,  our 
superior  strictness  made  us,  as  compared  with 
some  other  cities,  appear  worse  than  we  really 
were.  Such  also  has  been  the  effect  of  our 
very  efforts  boldly  to  expose  this  evil ;  with 
God's  blessing  resolutely  to  arrest  its  progress. 
Thanks  especially  to  our  temperance  societies, 
they  have  thrown  a  flood  of  daylight  upon 
the  subject.  And  be  it  remembered,  that  the 
chamber  of  him,  who  has  opened  the  shutters, 
and  let  in  the  sunbeams,  and  is  busy  sweeping 
cobwebs  from  the  wall  and  dust  from  the 
floor,  foul  as  it  seems,  may  be  less  so  than  a 
room  more  unused  to  brooms  and  less  fully 
illuminated  with  the  light  of  day.  "We  have 
brought  out  the  evil.  We  have  dragged  the 
monster  from  his  den,  for  all  the  world  to  gaze 
at  him,  and  hate  him,  and  kill  him,  if  the}r  can. 
In  standing  up  for  my  country,  in  stating 
what  I  believe  to  be  nothing  more  or  less  than 
the  truth,  where  or  when,  let  me  ask,  did  our 


60  THE  CITY: 

Scottish  Sabbaths  ever  present  such  scenes  as 
those  that  follow  ?  They  appear  in  evidence 
given  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  Horrible  illustrations  of  what  our 
religion  and  country  have  to  suffer  from  this 
crime,  it  is  painful,  it  is  loathsome,  to  read 
them.  Yet  he  who  would  cure  disease,  and 
save  from  death,  must  nerve  himself  to  endure 
the  horrors  of  the  dissecting-room. 

A  member  of  the  vestry,  and  a  governor  of 
the  poor,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Margarets,  was 
asked  whether  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
drinkers  had  increased  beyond  the  number  of 
the  inhabitants.  He  replies,  "Yes;  and  I 
think  the  character  of  the  drinkers  has  deteri 
orated  !  Last  Sunday  morning,  I  arose  about 
seven  o'clock,  and  looked  from  my  bed-room 
at  the  gin-palace  opposite  to  me.  I  saw  it 
surrounded  with  customers ;  amongst  them  I 
saw  two  coal  porters,  apparently  with  women 
who  appeared  to  be  their  wives,  and  a  little 
child,  about  six  or  seven  years  old.  These  forced 
their  way  through  the  crowd  after  much  strug 
gling  ;  they  got  to  the  bar,  and  came  out  again 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  61 

in  a  short  time,  one  of  the  women  so  intox 
icated  as  to  be  unable  to  walk;  she  went 
against  the  door-post,  and  then  fell  flat  on  the 
pavement,  with  her  legs  partly  in  the  shop. 
The  three  who  were  with  her,  attempted  to 
raise  her,  but  they  were  so  intoxicated  as  to  be 
unable  to  perform  that  task ;  their  efforts  to 
perform  that  were  ludicrous,  and  the  doors 
were  opened  wide  into  the  shop  to  admit  of 
the  ingress  and  egress  of  customers,  who  pass 
ed  by  laughing  at  that  which  appeared  to  them 
a  most  comic  scene.  After  a  considerable  time 
they  succeeded  in  raising  the  woman,  but  she 
fell  again ;  they  then  brought  her  to  the  side, 
and  placed  her  against  the  door-post,  and 
there  she  sat,  with  her  head  in  her  bosom,  ap 
parently  insensible;  the  little  child  who  was 
with  her  came  and  endeavored  to  arouse  her, 
by  smacking  her  on  the  legs  and  on  the  body, 
and  on  the  face,  but  she  appeared  quite  insen 
sible  ;  the  little  thing  appeared  to  be  the  most 
sensible  of  the  party.  During  this  time,  a 
woman  almost  in  a  state  of  nudity,  with  a  fine 
infant  at  her  breast,  the  only  dress  being  its 


62  THE  CITY: 

night  shirt,  followed  by  another  child  about 
eight  years  old,  an  interesting  little  girl,  naked, 
except  a  night-shirt,  and  without  either  shoes 
or  stockings,  followed  a  wretched  looking  man 
into  the  house,  and  remained  there  some  time. 
I  saw  them  struggling  through  the  crowd  to 
get  to  the  bar.  They  all  had  their  gin ;  the 
infant  had  the  first  share  from  the  woman's 
glass ;  they  came  back  to  the  outside  of  the 
door,  and  there  could  hardly  stand,  but  ap 
peared  ripe  for  quarrel.  The  little  child  in 
her  arms  cried,  and  the  wretched  woman  beat 
it  most  unmercifully." 

He  states  also: — "Last  Sunday  morning  I 
had  occasion  to  walk  through  the  Broadway  a 
few  minutes  before  eleven  o'clock.  I  found 
the  pavement  before  every  gin-shop  crowded ; 
just  as  church-time  approached,  the  gin-shops 
sent  forth  their  multitudes,  swearing,  and 
fighting,  and  bawling  obscenely;  some  were 
stretched  on  the  pavement,  insensibly  drunk, 
while  every  few  steps  the  foot  way  was  taken 
up  by  drunken  wretches  being  dragged  to  the 
station-house  by  the  police.'1 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  63 

The  same  witness  was  asked: — Has  the 
habit  of  drinking  among  women  much  in 
creased,  so  far  as  your  observation  extends? 
He  answers  : — "I  think  it  has  extended,  and 
the  children  appear  to  be  initiated  to  the 
drinking  of  spirits  from  their  infancy ;"  and 
he  calls  the  special  attention  of  the  Committee 
to  the  fact,  "  that  the  poor  wretched  girls  who 
live  by  prostitution,  and  who  are  the  best  cus 
tomers  to  the  gin-shops,  die  off  in  about  four 
years."  Now  mark  how  that  brief  course  of 
vice  and  its  terrible  end  stand  out  in  contrast 
to  the  unholy  gains  of  those  whe  feed  its  fires. 
This  witness  states,  that,  in  three  gin-shops 
close  by  him,  "more  than  twenty  thousand 
pounds  is  year  by  year  taken  for  spirits  con 
sumed  upon  the  premises  ;  and  that  within  a 
circle  containing  a  population  of  40,000  peo 
ple,  not  less  than  £50,000  is  expended  on  gin 
alone  !"  Oh,  if  that  is  a  frightful  vice  which 
eats,  like  a  cancer,  into  a  woman's  breast,  that 
is  a  frightful  trade,  which,  fungus-like,  lives 
upon  the  corruption  of  human  nature — the 
decay  of  our  noblest  faculties,  the  death  of 


64  THE  CITY: 

our  best  affections.  He  is,  for  himself,  a 
wretched  fool,  who  builds  up  a  fortune  out  of 
sin  and  misery.  One  blow  of  death's  hand 
will  shatter  it,  and  what  will  he  do  when  he 
has  to  confront  all  those  who  accuse  him  of 
their  ruin — when  he  stands  at  the  bar  of  Grod 
as  ragged  and  naked  as  that  wretched  woman 
whom  first  a  villain  spoiled  of  her  virtue,  and 
threw  her  away,  and  next  he  plunders  of  her 
shame  and  money — casting  her  forth  upon  the 
cold,  hard  street. 

This  evidence,  no  doubt,  was  given  some 
years  ago ;  but  with  our  own  eyes  we  have 
seen  spectacles  of  sin  and  misery  in  London 
bad  as  anything  that  witness  has  depicted. 
Let  us  hear  no  more  therefore  of  the  strict 
Sabbaths  of  Scotland  driving  our  people  into 
the  arms  of  intemperance.  It  was  the  fair 
face  of  England  these  loathsome  spectacles 
blotted.  They  were  to  be  seen"  in  her  metrop 
olis,  under  the  shadow  of  religion's  antique 
and  venerable  towers,  near  by  the  palace  of 
royalty,  and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
halls  of  legislation.  "While  our  senators,  fired 


ITS  SINS  AXD   SORROWS.  65 

with  the  ambition  of  old  Eome,  push  Britain's 
conquests  to  distant  lands,  and  flare  up  with 
indignation  at  the  slightest  insult  offered  to 
her  flag,  let  them  learn  that  these  scenes  most 
of  all  dishonor  us.  It  is  neither  my  pleasure, 
nor  my  part,  to  speak  "  evil  of  dignities  ;"  but 
having  regard  only  to  the  interests  of  truth, 
of  humanity,  of  God's  glory  and  man's  good, 
I  will  be  bold  to  say,  that  unless  those  into 
whose  hands  we  have  committed  the  affairs  of 
our  country,  cease  to  swell  the  revenues  of 
the  state  out  of  the  vices  of  the  people,  and 
promptly  apply  every  possible  cure  to  these 
crying  evils,  they  will  peril  the  existence  and 
betray  the  best  interests  of  our  empire.  If 
conquests  are  to  be  pushed  abroad,  while  our 
deadliest  enemies  are  left  to  make  such  havoc 
at  home,  our  legislators  will  stand  open  to  the 
charge  of  Solomon  : — "  The  eyes  of  a  fool  are 
in  the  ends  of  the  earth."  A  remark,  let  me 
add,  not  more  applicable  to  the  state  than  to 
the  church,  if  in  seeking  to  convert  the  hea 
then  abroad,  she  forgets  the  heathen  at  home. 
6* 


66  THE  CITY: 

Secondly,  Let  us  look  more  particularly  at  the 
intemperance  of  our  own  city. 

She  has  no  occasion  to  sit  proudly  on  her 
hills  and  look  down  on  others.  We  have 
cause  to  thank  God  for  that  Act  of  Parliament, 
by  which,  in  answer  to  the  voice  of  an  all  but 
unanimous  people,  the  drinking-shops  of  Scot 
land  were  closed,  and  all  traffic  in  intoxicat 
ing  liquors  pronounced  illegal,  from  Saturday 
night  till  Monday  morning.  We  give  God 
thanks  for  that.  What  we  gained,  we  intend 
to  keep.  What  we  won,  we  shall  resolutely 
defend.  We  have  noa  intention  of  retreating. 
On  the  contrary,  we  desire  to  see  the  law  of 
the  Sabbath  extended  to  every  day  of  the 
week,  and  all  shops  opened  for  the  mere  pur 
poses  of  drinking  shut — shut  up,  as  a  curse  to 
the  community — as  carrying  on  a  trade,  not 
less  than  the  opium-shops  of  China,  incurably 
pernicious.  The  evil,  which  cannot  be  cured, 
condemns  itself  to  death. 

But,  amid  the  improved  aspect  of  our  Sab 
baths,  we  cannot  forget  that  before  the  Act 
which  I  have  alluded  to  was  passed,  in  the 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  67 

more  than  forty  thousand  visits  paid  on  the 
Lord's  day  to  the  drinking  shops,  we  had  a 
fact,  terribly  S}7mptomatic  of  the  extent  and 
virulence  of  the  disease.  Nor  can  we  shut 
our  eyes  to  week-day  scenes.  You  have  only 
to  walk  our  streets  to  see  how  this  vice  rages 
far  and  wide,  and  goes  about  them  "  like  a 
roaring  lion,  seeking  whom  it  may  devour." 
I  should  be  ashamed  to  walk  some  districts  of 
this  city  with  a  native  of  that  ancient  nation 
with  which  we  are  now  at  war,  and  to  which, 
God  grant  that  we  may  soon  be  reconciled. 
"  The  wrath  of  man  worketh  not  the  right 
eousness  of  God  ;"  and  who  would  not  rather 
see  our  fleets  with  flowing  sails  approach  these 
distant  shores  to  land  a  freight  of  merchan 
dise,  Bibles,  and  messengers  of  peace,  than 
cannon,  and  serried  regiments,  and  other  ar 
maments  of  war?  With  a  pagan  from  any 
part  of  that  vast  empire,  but  one  which  our 
opium-trade  and  greed  of  gain  had  demoral 
ized,  I  say  that  I  should  be  afraid  to  find  my 
self  in  many  districts  of  this  city  of  colleges, 
and  churches,  and  hospitals,  and  benevolent 


THE  CITY: 


societies,  and  people  of  high  Christian  worth 
and  unquestionable  piety. 

Amid  the  idle  groups  of  bloated  women, 
and  half-naked  children,  and  wrecks  of  men, 
filling  up  almost  every  close-mouth  and  foot 
of  filthy  stair,  with  our  path  crossed  by  some 
reeling  drunkard,  who  launches  himself  into 
the  common  sewer,  with  so  many  shops  under 
Government  license,  turning  health  into  dis 
ease,  decency  into  tattered  rags,  love  into  es 
trangement  or  bitter  hatred,  young  beauty 
into  loathsomeness,  woman's  natural  modesty 
into  loud  and  coarse  effrontery,  mothers'  milk 
into  poison,  mothers'  hearts  into  stone,  and 
the  image  of  God  into  something  baser  than  a 
brute ;  how  could  I  look  that  sober,  upright 
pagan  in  the  face,  and  ask  him  to  become  a 
Christian  ?  I  must  be  dumb,  lest  he  should 
turn  round  on  me  to  ask : — Are  these  Chris 
tians  ?  Be  these  the  fruits  of  Christianity  ? 
I  would  repel  the  charge.  But  what  if  he 
should  follow  it  up  with  a  blow  less  easy  to 
parry?  Pointing  up  to  those  here  who  are 
rolling  in  wealth,  or  enjoying  the  abundant 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  69 

comforts  of  their  homes,  or  the  ordinances  of 
their  worship,  he  might  next  ask  : — What  are 
these  Christians  doing?  What  do  they  to 
save  their  fellow-creatures  from  miseries  that 
move  a  pagan  to  tears  ?  What  to  save  them 
from  crimes  unpractised  by  those  whom  you 
call  the  followers  of  the  false  prophet,  by  us 
to  whose  distant  land  you  send  your  mission 
aries  to  turn  us  from  our  fathers'  idols  ?  What 
could  I  say?  How  would  I  look?  With 
what  answer  could  I  meet  the  withering  sar 
casm  :— "  Physician,  heal  thyself?" 

But  let  us  leave  the  lowest  class  and  rise 
into  a  higher  region.  Not  that  it  would  alter 
my  position  or  abate  my  zeal  if  I  believed  that 
it  was  none  but  the  lowest  of  the  low  who  fell 
victims  to  this  vice.  They  are  our  brethren. 
They  shiver  in  the  cold,  and  pine  under  hun 
ger,  as  well  as  we.  They  have  feelings,  sensi 
tive  to  wrong  and  pain,  as  well  as  we.  They 
have  heart-strings  to  be  broken,  as  well  as  we. 
They  have  souls  to  be  saved,  as  well  as  we — 
souls  as  precious  and  priceless  as  our  own.  A 
diamond  is  a  diamond  whether  it  lies  buried 


70  THE  CITY: 

in  a  dust  heap,  or  flashes  on  beauty's  finger, 
or  is  set  in  a  golden  crown.  I  hold  a  beggar's 
soul  to  be  as  valuable  as  a  king's  ;  and  that  he 
who  dies  in  a  hovel,  goes  on  the  same  footing 
before  a  God  in  judgment,  as  the  hero,  whose 
death  has  thrown  a  nation  into  mourning,  and 
who  is  borne  to  the  tomb,  through  crowded 
streets,  with  the  honors  and  parade  of  a  public 
funeral. 

Go  not  away,  I  pray  you,  under  the  delu 
sion,  that  like  a  fog-bank  which  lies  thick  and 
heavy  on  the  valley,  when  heights  are  clear, 
and  hill,  tops  are  beaming  in  the  morning  sun, 
intemperance  is  confined  only  to  the  lowest 
stratum  of  society.  I  know  the  contrary. 
Much  improved  as  are  the  habits  of  the  upper 
and  middle  classes — and  we  thank  God  for 
that,  extending  as  that  improvement  has  done 
to  those  who  stand  beneath  them  in  the  social 
pyramid — and  we  bless  God  also  for  that,  and 
hoping  that  this  improvement,  like  water  per 
colating  a  bed  of  sand,  will  sink  down  till  it 
reaches  and  purifies  the  lowest  stratum,  we 
have  met  this  vice  in  all  classes  of  society.  It 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORKOWS.  71 

has  cost  many  a  servant  her  place,  and — still 
greater  loss — ruined  her  virtue.  It  has  broken 
the  bread  of  many  a  tradesman.  It  has 
wrecked  the  fortunes  of  many  a  merchant. 
It  has  spoiled  the  coronet  of  its  lustre,  and 
sunk  rank  into  contempt.  It  has  sent  respect 
ability  to  hide  its  head  in  a  poor-house,  and 
presented  scenes  in  luxurious  drawing-rooms, 
which  have  furnished  laughter  to  the  scullions 
in  the  kitchen. 

But  it  has  done  worse  things  than  break  the 
staff  of  bread,  lower  rank,  wreck  fortunes,  and 
crown  wealth  with  thorns.  Most  accursed 
vice  !  What  hopes  so  precious  that  it  has  not 
withered,  what  career  so  promising  that  it  has 
not  arrested,  what  heart  so  tender,  what  tem 
per  so  fine,  that  it  has  not  destroyed,  what 
things  so  noble  and  sacred  that  it  has  not 
blasted?  Touched  by  its  hell-fire  flame  the 
laurel  crown  has  been  changed  into  ashes  on 
the  head  of  mourning  genius,  and,  the  wings 
of  the  poet  scorched  by  it,  he  who  once  played 
in  the  light  of  sun-beams  and  soared  aloft  into 
the  skies,  has  basely  crawled  in  the  dust.  Par- 


72  THE  CITY: 

alysing  the  mind,  even  more  than  the  body,  it 
has  turned  the  noblest  intellect  into  drivelling 
idiocy.  Not  awed  by  dignity,  it  has  polluted 
the  ermine  of  the  judge.  Not  scared  away  by 
the  sanctity  of  the  temple,  it  has  denied  the 
pulpit.  In  all  these  particulars,  I  speak  what 
I  know.  I  have  seen  it  cover  with  a  cloud, 
or  expose  to  deposition  from  the  office  and 
honors  of  the  holy  ministry,  no  fewer  than  ten 
clergymen,  with  some  of  whom  I  have  sat 
down  at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and  all  of  whom 
I  numbered  in  the  rank  of  acquaintances  or 
friends. 

The  frightful  extent  of  this  vice,  however, 
is  perhaps  most  brought  out  by  one  melan 
choly  fact.  There  are  few  families  amongst 
us  so  happy  as  not  to  have  had  some  one  near 
and  dear  to  them  either  in  imminent  peril — 
hanging  over  the  precipice — or  the  slave  of 
intemperance,  altogether  "sold  unto  sin." 
Considering  the  depravity  of  human  nature, 
and  the  temptations  to  which  our  customs  and 
circumstances  expose  us,  that  fact,  however 
melancholy  and  full  of  warning,  does  not  as- 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  73 

tonisli  us.  Bat,  to  see  a  father  or  mother,  to 
see  a  brother  or  sister  venturing  on  the  edge 
of  a  whirlpool,  in  whose  devouring,  damning 
vortex  they  themselves  have  seen  one  whom 
they  loved  engulphed,  does  fill  us  with  aston 
ishment.  I  knew  a  mother  once,  who  saw  her 
only  son  drowned  before  her  eyes.  Years 
came  and  went  ere  she  could  calmly  look  upon 
the  ocean,  or  hear  without  pain  the  roar  of  the 
billows  where  her  boy  was  lost.  How  many 
have  a  better  or  rather  a  bitterer  cause  for 
hating  the  sight  of  the  bowl !  Considering 
how  many  are  lost — drowned  there,  I  do  won 
der  that  so  few  Christian,  or  no  Christian,  but 
loving  parents,  candidly  consider  the  question, 
whether  it  be  not  their  duty  to  train  up  their 
children  according  to  the  rule,  "Taste  not, 
touch  not,  handle  not."  I  have  wondered 
most  of  all  to  see  a  father  indulging  in  the  cup 
that  had  been  poison,  and  death  to  his  sou. 
Why  does  he  not  throw  it  away — cast  it  from 
him  with  horror!  Taking  the  knife,  red  with 
the  blood  of  his  child — making  sure  that  it 
shall  be  the  death  of  none  else — why  docs  he 
7 


74  THE  CITY: 

not  fling  it  after  the  lost  one — down,  down 
into  the  depths  of  hell  ? 

Standing  amid  havoc  and  ruins,  with  so 
many  in  our  neighborhoods,  and  in  our 
churches,  whom  this  vice  has  utterly  wrecked, 
what  prayer  so  suitable  as  this: — "0  God! 
lift  up  thy  feet  unto  the  perpetual  desolations  ! 
Thine  enemies  roar  in  the  midst  of  thy  con 
gregations.  They  break  down  the  carved 
work  thereof  with  axes  and  with  hammers. 
They  have  cast  fire  into  thy  sanctuary.  They 
have  defiled  the  dwelling-place  of  thy  name. 
O  God !  how  long  shall  the  adversary  re 
proach?  Shall  the  enemy  blaspheme  thy 
name  for  ever  ?  Have  respect  unto  thy  cove 
nant  !  The  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full 
of  the  habitations  of  horrid  cruelty.  Forget 
not  the  congregation  of  thy  poor  for  ever. 
Arise,  0  Lord,  and  plead  the  cause  that  is 
thine  own." 

What,  now,  although  the  evil  may  have 
been  exaggerated  ?  It  has  been  alleged  that 
not  less  than  Sixty  Millions  of  money  are 
spent  year  by  year  on  intoxicating  stimulants 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  75 

within  the  United  Kingdom.  Eeduce  the 
sum  by  one-half,  let  it  be  but  Thirty,  and 
apart  altogether  from  the  ruin  it  works  in 
so  many  cases  on  all  that  is  good,  o.nd  noble, 
and  blessed,  and  beautiful,  and  holy,  how 
great  a  waste !  Are  there  no  hungry  ones 
to  feed,  no  naked  to  clothe,  no  orphans  to 
adopt,  no  unhappy  children  left  uncared  for 
and  untaught,  no  favorable  outlets  for  our 
money  on  the  heathenism  of  home  or  foreign 
fields  ?  There  are.  And  when  the  poor  are 
starving,  when  souls  are  perishing,  when  we 
are  straitened  for  want  of  funds  to  supply  the 
gospel  at  home,  or  send  missionaries  to  tell 
the  heathen  world  of  Jesus  and  his  love,  how 
shall  we  face  a  day  of  judgment — we  who 
spend  a  sum  equal  to  half  the  whole  revenue 
of  the  British  empire  on  what  is  in  all  cases  a 
luxury,  in  most  cases  an  injury,  and  in  many 
a  most  fatal  indulgence  ?  Before  we  are  sum 
moned  into  the  Master's  presence,  it  is  well  to 
be  thinking  how  we  are  to  meet  the  demand, 
"  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship." 

Again,  it  has  been  stated,  that  through  the 


76  THE  CITY  : 

direct  and  indirect  effects  produced  by  these 
stimulants,  Sixty  thousand  lives  are  annually 
lost.  Eeduce  that  also  by  one-half,  and  what 
a  quotient  remains  1  Thirty  thousand  human 
lives  offered  in  annual  sacrifice  at  the  bloody 
shrine  of  this  idol !  Death  is  bitter  enough  in 
any  circumstances  to  the  bereaved.  However 
precious  our  comforts  be,  all  memory  of  the 
dead  is  more  or  less  painful.  "We  put  out  of 
sight  the  toys  of  the  little  hands  that  are 
mouldering  in  the  silent  grave.  The  picture 
of  the  dear  one,  whose  eyes  our  fingers  have 
closed,  and  whose  face  the  shroud  has  covered, 
hangs  veiled  upon  the  wall.  The  remem 
brance  of  the  loved  and  lost  will  throw  on 
life's  brightest  scenes  the  cold  shadow  of  a 
cloud,  \vhich  discharges  its  burden  of  grief 
sometimes  in  a  few  drops,  sometimes  in  a 
shower  of  tears.  But  over  how  many  of 
these  thirty  thousand  deaths  is  there  the 
mourning  that  has  no  hope  !  What  incurable 
wounds  have  they  inflicted !  What  sad  memo 
ries  have  they  left!  They  talk  of  war! 
What  is  war  to  that?  Give  me  her  bloody 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  77 

bed,  bury  me  or  mine  in  a  soldier's  rather 
than  in  a  drunkard's  grave !  Innocent  chil 
dren,  killed  off  by  cold  and  hunger,  slowly 
starved  to  death — coffins  that  hold  broken 
hearts — woman's  remorse  for  her  virtue  lost, 
gnawing  like  a  vulture  at  life's  quivering 
vitals — poor,  pitiable  wretches,  with  palsied 
hands  and  shrivelled  limbs,  in  loop-holed 
poverty,  who  would  give  the  world  to  be 
able,  as  in  better  and  bygone  days,  to  love 
their  wives  and  bless  their  children,  and  en 
joy  the  esteem  of  their  neighbors,  sinking  into 
death  by  inches,  or  staggering  at  a  sudden 
call  up  to  the  bar  of  judgment!  Thirty 
thousand  such  cases,  year  by  year,  in  this 
kingdom !  Than  that,  give  me  rather  the 
battle-field.  With  a  good  cause  to  fight  for, 
and  bugles  sounding  the  assault,  give  me  the 
red  rush  of  gallent  men  who  dash  across  the 
lines  of  death,  and  leaping  in  at  every  breach 
and  embrasure,  strike  for  the  liberties  of  man 
— falling  with  their  mother's  Bible  in  their 
breast,  a  mother's  and  Jesus'  name  mingled 
on  their  dying  lips!  "No  drunkard  shall 


78       THE  CITY:   ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS. 

inherit  the  kingdom  of  Grod."  But  of  those 
who  sleep  in  Jesus,  whether  they  died  with 
gentle  and  holy  voices  in  their  ear,  or  amid 
the  crash  of  musketry  and  roar  of  canon — "  I 
heard  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying  unto  me, 
"Write,  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the 
Lord,  from  henceforth,  yea,  saith  the  Spirit, 
that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors,  and  their 
works  do  follow  them." 


SERMON    III. 

When  ho  beheld  the  city,  he  wept  over  it."—  LUKB  xix.  41. 


is  a  remarkable  phenomenon  to  be 
JL  seen  on  certain  parts  of  our  own  coast. 
Strange  to  say,  it  proves,  notwithstanding 
such  expressions  as  the  stable  and  solid  land, 
that  it  is  not  the  land  but  the  sea  which  is  the 
stable  element.  On  some  summer  day,  when 
there  is  not  a  wave  to  rock  her,  nor  breath  of 
wind  to  fill  her  sail  or  fan  a  cheek,  you  launch 
your  boat  upon  the  waters,  and,  pulling  out 
beyond  lowest  tide  mark,  you  idly  lie  upon 
her  bows  to  catch  the  silvery  glance  of  a  pass 
ing  fish,  or  watch  the  movements  of  the  many 
curious  creatures  that  travel  the  sea's  sandy 
bed,  or,  creeping  out  of  their  rocky  homes, 
wander  its  tangled  mazes.  If  the  traveller  is 
surprised  to  find  a  deep-sea  shell  embedded  in 
the  marbles  of  a  mountain  peak,  how  great  is 


80  THE   CITY: 

your  surprise  to  see  beneath  you  a  vegetation 
foreign  to  the  deep  1  x  Below  your  boat,  sub 
merged  many  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
lowest  tide,  a\vay  down  in  these  green  crystal 
depths,  you  see  no  rusting  anchor,  no  mould 
ering  remains  of  some  shipwrecked  one,  but  in 
the  standing  stumps  of  trees  you  discover  the 
mouldering  vestiges  of  a  forest,  where  once 
the  wild  cat  prowled,  and  the  birds  of  heaven, 
singing  their  loves,  had  nestled  and  nursed 
their  young.  In  counterpart  to  those  portions 
of  our  coast  where  sea-hollowed  caves,  with 
sides  the  waves  have  polished,  and  floors  still 
strewed  with  shells  and  sand,  now  stand  high 
above  the  level  of  the  strongest  stream-tides, 
there  stand  these  dead  decaying  trees — en 
tombed  in  the  deep.  A  strange  phenomenon, 
which  admits  of  no  other  explanation,  than 
this,  that  there  the  coast  line  has  sunk  beneath 
its  ancient  level. 

Many  of  our  cities  present  a  phenomenon 
as  melancholy  to  the  eye  of  a  philanthropist, 
as  the  other  is  interesting  to  a  philosopher,  or 
geologist.  In  their  economical,  educational, 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  81 

moral,  and  religious  aspects,  certain  parts  of 
this  city  bear  palpable  evidence  of  a  corre 
sponding  subsidence.  Not  a  single  house,  nor 
a  block  of  houses,  but  whole  streets,  once 
from  end  to  end  the  abodes  of  decency,  and 
industry,  and  wealth,  and  rank,  and  piety, 
have  been  engulphed.  A  flood  of  ignorance, 
and  misery,  and  sin,  now  breaks  and  roars 
above  the  top  of  their  highest  tenements. 
Nor  do  the  old  stumps  of  a  forest,  still  stand 
ing  up  erect  beneath  the  sea-wave,  indicate  a 
greater  change,  a  deeper  subsidence,  than  the 
relics  of  ancient  grandeur,  and  the  touching 
memorials  of  piety  which  yet  linger  about 
these  wretched  dwellings,  like  evening  twilight 
on  the  hills — like  some  traces  of  beauty  on  a 
corpse.  The  unfurnished  floor,  the  begrimed 
and  naked  walls,  the  stifling,  sickening  atmos 
phere,  the  patched  and  dusty  window  — 
through  which  a  sunbeam,  like  hope,  is  faintly 
stealing,  the  ragged,  hunger-bitten,  and  sad- 
faced  children,  the  ruffian  man,  the  heap  of 
straw  where  some  wretched  mother,  in  mutter 
ing  dreams,  sleeps  off  last  night's  debauch,  or 


82  THE  CITY: 

lies  unshrouded  and  uncoffined  in  the  ghastli- 
ness  of  a  hopeless  death,  are  sad  scenes.  We 
have  often  looked  on  them.  And  they  ap 
pear  all  the  sadder  for  the  restless  play  of 
fancy.  Excited  by  some  vestiges  of  a  fresco- 
painting  that  still  looks  out  from  the  foul  and 
broken  plaster,  the  massive  marble  rising  over 
the  cold  and  cracked  hearth-stone,  an  elabo 
rately  carved  cornice  too  high  for  shivering 
cold  to  pull  it  down  for  fuel,  some  stucco  flow 
ers  or  fruit  yet  pendant  on  the  crumbling  ceil 
ing,  fancy,  kindled  by  these,  calls  up  the  scenes 
and  actors  of  other  days — when  beauty,  ele 
gance,  and  fashion  graced  these  lonely  halls, 
and  plenty  smoked  on  groaning  tables,  and 
where  these  few  cinders,  gathered  from  the 
city  dust-heap,  are  feebly  smouldering,  hospi 
table  fires  roared  up  the  chimney. 

But  there  is  that  in  and  about  these  houses 
which  bears  witness  of  a  deeper  subsidence,  a 
yet  sadder  change.  Bent  on  some  mission  of 
mercy,  you  stand  at  the  foot  of  a  dank  and 
filthy  stair.  It  conducts  you  to  the  crowded 
rooms  of  a  tenement,  where— with  the  excep- 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  83 

tion  of  some  old  decent  widow  who  Las  seen 
better  days,  and  when  her  family  are  all  dead, 
and  her  friends  are  all  gone,  still  clings  to 
God  and  her  faith  in  the  dark  hour  of  adver 
sity  and  amid  the  wreck  of  fortune—from  the 
cellar-dens  below  to  the  garrets  beneath  the 
roof-tree,  you  shall  find  none  either  reading 
their  Bible,  or  even  with   a  Bible  to  read° 
Alas!    of  prayer,   of  morning  and    evening 
psalms,  of  earthly  or  heavenly  peace,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  place  that  once  knew  them, 
knows  them  no  more.     But  before  you  enter 
thee  door-way,  raise  your  eyes  to  the  stone 
above  it.     Dumb,  it  speaks  of  other  and  bet 
ter  times.     Carved  in  Greek  or  Latin,  or  our 
own  mother  tongue,  you  decipher  such  texts 
as  these: — "  Peace  be  to  this  house."     "Ex 
cept  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in 
vain  that  build  it."     "  We  have  a  building  of 
God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands  eternal  in 
the  heavens."     «  Fear  God  ;"  or  this,  "  Love 
your  neighbor."     Like  the  mouldering  rem 
nants  of  a  forest  that  once  resounded  with  the 
melody  of  birds,  but  hears  nought  now  save 


84  THE   CITY: 

the  angry  clash,  or  melancholy  moan  of  break 
ing  waves,  these  vestiges  of  piety  furnish  a 
guage  which,  enables  us  to  measure  how  lo\\r 
in  these  dark  localities  the  whole  stratum  of 
society  has  sunk. 

Now  there  are  forces  in  nature  which,  heav 
ing  up  the  crust  of  our  earth,  may  convert 
the  sea  bed  again  into  forest  or  corn  land.  At 
this  moment  these  forces  are  in  active  opera 
tion.  Working  slowly,  yet  with  prodigious 
power,  they  are  now  raising  the  coasts  of 
Sweden  in  the  old  world  and  of  Chili  in  the 
new.  And  who  knows  but  these  subterranean 
agencies,  elevating  our  own  coasts,  may  yet 
restore  verdure  to  those  deep  sea  sands — giv 
ing  back  to  the  plough  its  soil,  to  waving 
pines  their  forest  land.  And  thus  on  our 
shores,  redeemed  from  the  grasp  of  the  ocean 
in  some  future  era,  golden  harvests  may  fall 
to  the  reaper's  song,  and  tall  forests  to  the. 
woodman's  axe.  We  know  not  whether  this 
shall  happen.  But  I  do  know  that  there  is  a 
force  at  work  in  this  world — gentle,  yet  pow 
erful — commonly  slow  in  action,  but  always 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  85 

sure  in  its  results,  which,  mightier  than  vol 
canic  fires,  pent-up  vapor,  or  rocking  earth 
quake,  is  adequate  to  raise  the  most  sunken 
masses  of  society,  and  restore  the  lowest  and 
longest  neglected  districts  of  our  cities  to  their 
old  level— to  set  them  on  the  platform  even 
of  a  higher  Christianity. 

Can  these  people  ever  be  raised?  Can 
those  "dry  bones  live?"  "  Where  is  the 
Lord  God  of  Elijah  ?"  are  questions,  distress 
ing  questions,  which,  when  worn  and  weary, 
and  disappointed,  and  cast  down,  and  heart 
sick,  \ye  have  been  often  tempted  to  ask.  Of 
such  times,  we  could  say  with  David  : — •"  We 
had  fainted,  unless  we  had  believed  to  see  the 
goodness  of  the  Lord  in  the  land  of  the  living." 
But  this  voice  of  God  came  sounding  down 
from  Heaven,  saying  :— - "  Though  ye  have 
lain  among  the  pots,  yet  ye  shall  be  as  the 
wings  of  a  dove  covered  with  silver,  and  her 
feathers  with  yellow  gold."  When  ready  to 
sink  under  a  sense  of  our  own  feebleness,  it 
said  to  us  :— "  The  chariots  of  God  are  twenty 
thousand,  even  thousands  of  angels  ;  the  Lord 
8 


86  THE   CITY: 

is  among  them,  as  in  Sinai,  in  the  hoi}'  place." 
To  the  question,  Can  these  lost  ones  be  recov 
ered?  the  answer  came  in  these  brave,  and 
bold,  and  cheerful  terms: — "I  will  bring 
again  from  Bash  an ;  I  will  bring  my  people 
again  from  the  depths  of  the  sea,  that  thy  foot 
'may  be  dipped  in  the  blood  of  thine  enemies, 
and  the  tongue  of  thy  dogs  in  the  same." 
And,  as  he  stood  on  the  heights  of  inspiration, 
looking  far  away  into  distant  time,  and  com 
manding  an  extent  of  prospect  hid  from  com 
mon  eyes,  we  heard  the  prophet  announce  the 
approaching  of  the  promised  event,  a  glorious 
gospel  change : — "  They  have  seen  thy  go 
ings,  O  God  ;  even  the  goings  of  my  King  in 
the  sanctuary.  The  singers  went  before,  the 
players  on  instruments  followed  after ;  among 
them  were  the  damsels  playing  on  timbrels. 
There  is  little  Benjamin  with  the  ruler,  the 
princes  of  Judah  with  their  council,  the  princes 
of  Zebulon  and  the  princes  of  Naphtali.  Thy 
God  hath  commanded  thy  strength.  Strength 
en,  0  God,  that  which  thou  hast  wrought  for 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  87 

us.  Sing  unto  God,  ye  kingdoms  of  the  earth, 
O  sing  praises  unto  the  Lord." 

Yes.  To  put  new  vigor  into  his  sinking 
energies,  a  man  has  only  to  "  remember  the 
years  of  the  right  hand  of  the  Most  High." 
How  does  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  crowned 
with  triumphs,  point  her  sceptre  not  to  fami 
lies,  nor  hamlets,  nor  cities,  but  whole  nations, 
raised  from  the  lowest  barbarism  and  the  bas 
est  vices ! 

We  cannot  despair  so  long  as  we  do  not 
forget,  that  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom 
of  God,  and  the  grace  of  God,  have  nothing  to 
do  within  our  shores  which  they  have  not 
done  already.  Are  our  lapsed  classes  rude 
and  uncultivated,  ignorant  and  vicious?  So 
were  our  forefathers,  when  Christianity  landed 
on  this  island.  She  took  possession  of  it  in 
Jesus'  name,  and  conquered  bold  savages, 
whom  the  Eomans  could  never  subdue,  by 
the  mild  yet  mighty  power  of  the  gospel. 
God's  "hand  is  not  shortened  that  it  cannot 
save,  nor  is  his  ear  heavy  that  it  cannot  hear." 
Therefore,  whatever  length  of  time  may  be  re- 


88  THE  CITY: 

quired  to  evangelize  our  city  masses,  however 
long  we  may  be  living  before  the  period  when 
a  "  nation  shall  be  born  in  a  day,"  whatever 
trials  of  patience  we  may  have  to  endure, 
whatever  tears  we  may  have  to  shed  over  our 
cities,  our  tears  are  not  such  as  Jesus  wept, 
when  he  beheld  Jerusalem. 

No.  Jerusalem  was  sealed  to  ruin — doomed 
beyond  redemption.  Our  brethren,  our  cities 
are  not  so.  "We  have  not  to  mourn  as  those 
who  have  no  hope.  As  on  a  summer  day  I 
have  seen  the  sky  at  once  so  shine  and  shower, 
that  every  rain-drop  was  changed  by  sun 
beams  into  a  falling  diamond,  so  hopes  mingle 
here  with  fears,  and  the  promises  of  the  gospel 
shed  sun-light  on  pious  sorrows.  Weep  we 
may  ;  weep  we  should — weep  and  work,  weep 
and  pray.  But  ever  let  our  tears  be  such  as 
Jesus  shed  beside  the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  when, 
while  weeping,  groaning,  he  bade  the  bystand 
ers  roll  away  the  stone — anticipating  the  mo 
ment  when  the  grave  at  his  command  would 
give  up  its  dead,  and  Lazarus  be  folded,  a  liv 
ing  brother,  in  the  arms  that,  four  days  ago, 


ITS   SIX3   AND   SORROWS.  89 

had  swathed  his  corpse.     Be  such  our  tears 
and   anticipations.      Sustained   by    them   we 
shall  work  all  the  better  ;  and  all  the  sooner 
shall  our  heavenly  Father  embrace  the  most 
wretched  of  these  wretched  outcasts.     Faith 
may  be  cast  down,  but  cannot  be  destroyed. 
There  is  no   reason,    because   we   are   "per 
plexed,"   ever  to   "despair."      Black  as  the 
prospect  looks,  the  cloud  presents  one  aspect 
to  the  world,  and  another  to  the  Christian.     I 
stand  on  the  side  of  it  that  lies  next  the  sun. 
There,  with  the  sun  shining  at  my  back  and 
the  black  cloud  in  my  eye,  I  see  a  radiant 
bow  which  spans  its  darkness,  and  reveals  in 
heavenly  colors  mercy  to  a  fallen  world.     "It 
is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  accepta 
tion,  that  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world  to 
save  sinners."     With  the  eye  of  faith  fixed  on 
that,  we  resume  our  work,  and  proceed  still 
further  to  lay  bare  the  state  of  the  city — its 
sorrows  for  Christian  balm,  its  sins  for  Chris 
tian  cure. 

We  have  turned  your  attention  to  the  ex 
tent  of  intemperance, 

*  ~0? 


90  THE  CITY: 

Secondly,  Attend  to  the  effects  of  this  vice. 

The  Spartans,  a  brave,  and,  although  hea 
thens,  in  many  respects  a  virtuous  people, 
held  intemperance  in  the  deepest  abhorrence. 
When  Christian  parents  initiate  their  children 
in  drinking  habits,  and — as  we  have  seen  and 
wondered  at — teach  them  to  carry  their  glass 
to  infaist  lips,  copy  whom  they  may,  the  wise 
old  Spartans  are  not  their  model.  They  were 
not  more  careful  to  train  the  youth  of  their 
country  to  athletic  exercises,  and  from  their 
boyhood  and  almost  their  mothers'  breasts  to 
'l  endure  hardship  as  good  soldiers''  of  Sparta, 
than  to  rear  them  up  in  habits  of  strictest, 
sternest  temperance.  It  formed  a  regular 
branch  of  their  national  education.  Whv 
should  it  not  of  ours  ?  It  would  be  an  incal 
culable  blessing  to  the  community.  It  would 
do  incalculably  more  to  promote  domestic 
comfort,  to  guard  the  welfare  of  families,  and 
secure  the  public  good,  than  other  branches 
that,  while  they  go  to  improve  the  taste  and 
polish  the  mind,  put  no  real  pith  or  power 
into  the  man.  Well,  once  a  year  these  Greeks 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  91 

assembled  their  slaves,  and,  having  compelled 
them  to  drink  to  intoxication,  they  turned 
them  out — all  reeling,  staggering,  besotted, 
brutalized — into  a  great  arena,  that  the  youths 
who  filled  its  benches  might  go  home  from 
this  spectacle  of  degradation  to  shun  the  wine- 
cup,  and  cultivate  the  virtues  of  sobriety. 
Happy  country  !  thrice  happy  land !  where 
drunkenness  was  to  be  seen  but  once  a  year, 
and  formed  but  an  annual  spectacle.  Alas !  we 
have  no  need  to  employ  such  unjustifiable 
means  even  for  so  good  an  end  !  We  do  not 
require  to  get  up  any  annual  show,  from  the 
pulpit  to  tell,  or  on  the  stage  of  a  theatre  to 
represent,  its  accursed,  and  direful,  and  dis 
gusting  effects.  The  lion  is  daily  ravaging  on 
our  streets.  He  goes  about  "  seeking  whom 
he  may  devour." 

Once  a  year,  indeed,  when  church-courts 
meet,  our  city  may  present  a  spectacle  which 
fools  regard  with  indifference,  but  wise  men 
with  compassion  and  fear.  A  pale  and  hag 
gard  man,  bearing  the  title  of  "Keverend," 
stands  at  the  bar  of  his  church.  Not  daring 


92  THE  CITY: 

to  look  up,  lie  bends  there  with  his  head  bur 
ied  in  his  hands,  blushes  on  his  face,  his  lips 
quivering,  and  a  hell  raging,  burning  within 
him,  as  he  thinks  of  home,  a  broken-hearted 
wife,  and  the  little  ones  so  soon  to  leave  that 
dear  sweet  home,  to  shelter  their  innocent 
heads  where  best,  all  beggared  and  disgraced, 
they  may.  "  Ah,  my  brother"  there  !  And 
ah,  my  brethren  here,  learn  to  "  watch  and 
pray,  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation."  See 
there  the  issue  of  all  a  mother's  anxieties,  and 
a  father's  self-denying  and  parsimonious  toil, 
to  educate  their  promising,  studious  boy.  In 
this  deep  darkness  has  set  for  ever  a  brilliant 
college  career.  Alas  I  what  an  end  to  the  sol 
emn  day  of  ordination,  and  the  bright  day  of 
marriage,  and  all  those  Sabbaths  when  an  af 
fectionate  people  hung  on  his  eloquent  lips  I 
Oh  1  if  this  sacred  office,  if  the  constant  hand 
ling  of  things  divine,  if  hours  of  study  spent 
over  the  word  of  God,  if  frequent  scenes  of 
death,  with  their  most  awful  and  sobering  so 
lemnities,  if  the  irremediable  ruin  into  which 
degradation  from  the  holy  office  plunges  a 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  93 

man  and  his  house  along  with  him,  if  the  un 
speakable  heinousness  of  this  sin  in  one  who 
held  the  post  of  a  sentinel,  and  was  charged 
with  the  care  of  souls— if  these  do  not  fortify 
and  fence  us  against  excess,  then,  in  the  name 
of  God,  "  let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth, 
take  heed  lest  he  fall."     You  are  confident  in 
your  strength,  so  was  he.     You  can  use  with 
out  abusing,  so  once  could  he.     I  tell  you  I 
have  seen  ministers  of  the  gospel  charged  by 
fame,  dragged  to  the  bar  of  their  church,  and 
degraded  before  the  world  as  drunkards,  whom 
once  I  would  have  as  little  expected  to  fall  as 
I  expect  some  of  you — as  you  believe  it  pos 
sible  that  this  vice  shall  yet  degrade  me  from 
the  pulpit,  and  cause  my  children  to  blush  at 
mention  of  their  father's  name.     Such  cases 
are  trumpet-tongued.    Their  voice  sounds  the 
loudest  warning.     In  such  a  fall  we  hear  the 
crash  of  a  stately  tree.     Leave   an   ungodly 
world — deaf,  stone-deaf  to  the  voice  of  Provi 
dence—to  quaff  their  cups,  and  make  the  fall 
of  ministers  "the  song  of  drunkards;"  leave 
them  to  say  that  all  religion  is  hypocrisy,  and 


94  THE  CITY: 

see,  in  such  a  case,  but  the  dropping  of  a  mask 
from  falsehood's  face.  Let  that  which  embold 
ens  them  in  sin  teach  you  to  stand  in  awe. 
For  it  seems  to  me  as  if,  disturbed  in  his  grave 
by  the  shock  of  such  an  event,  the  old  proph 
et,  wrapped  like  Samuel  in  his  mantle  shroud, 
had  left  the  dead  to  cry  in  the  ears  of  all  the 
living,  who  regard  with  indifference  the  fall 
of  a  minister,  "Howl,  fir-trees,  for  the  cedar 
is  fallen." 

On  leaving  a  church-court,  where  he  has 
Heen  so  strange  and  dreadful  a  spectacle  as  a 
man  of  cultivated  mind,  a  man  of  literary 
habits,  a  man  of  honorable  position,  a  man  of 
sacred  character,  sacrifice  all, — the  cause  of 
religion,  the  bread  of  his  family,  the  interests 
of  his  children,  the  happiness  of  his  wife,  his 
character,  his  soul, — all,  to  this  base  indul 
gence,  no  man.  after  such  a  terrible  proof  of 
the  might  and  mastery  of  this  tyrant  vice,  will 
be  astonished  at  anything  be  may  encounter 
in  our  streets.  Yet  if  the  soul  of  Paul  was 
"stirred  within  him," — stirred  to  its  deepest 
depths, — when  he  saw  the  idolatry  of  Athens, 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  95 

I  think  that  he  who  can  walk  from  this  neigh 
boring  castle  to  yonder  palace,  nor  groan  in 
spirit,  must  have  a  heart  about  as  hard  as  the 
pavement  that  he  walks  on.     The  degradation 
of  humanity,  the  ragged  poverty,  the  squalid 
misery,  the  suffering  childhood,  the  pining, 
dying  infancy,  oh,  how  do  these  obliterate  all 
the  romance  of  the  scene,  and  make  the  most 
picturesque  street  in  Christendom  one  of  the 
most  painful  to  travel.     They  call  the  street 
in  Jerusalem,  along  which  tradition  says  that 
a  bleeding  Saviour  bore  his  cross,  the    Via 
Dolorosa;  and  I  have  thought  that  our  own 
street  was  baptized  in  the  sorrows  of  as  mourn 
ful  a  name.    With  so  many  countenances  that 
have  misery  stamped  on  them  as  plain  as  if  it 
were  burned  in  with  a  red-hot  iron—hunger 
staring  at  us  out  of  these  hollow  eyes—drink- 
palsied  men,  drink-blotched  and  bloated  wo 
men—sad  and  sallow  infants  who  pine  away 
into  slow  death,  with  their  weary  heads  lying 
so  pitifully  on  the  shoulders  of  some   half 
de-humanized  woman— this  poor  little  child, 
who  never  smiles,  without  shoe  or  stocking 


96  THE  CITY  : 

on  his  ulcered  feet,  shivering,  creeping,  limp 
ing  along  with  the  bottle  in  his  emaciated 
hand,  to  buy  a  parent  drink  with  the  few 
pence  that,  poor  hungry  creature,  he  would 
fain  spend  on  a  loaf  of  bread,  but  dare  not — 
the  whole  scene  is  like  the  roll  of  the  prophet, 
"written  within  and  without,  lamentations, 
mourning,  and  woe."  How  has  it  wrung  our 
heart  to  see  a  poor  ragged  boy  looking  greed 
ily  in  at  a  window  on  the  food  he  has  no  one 
to  give  him,  and  dare  not  touch, — to  watch 
him,  as  he  alternately  lifted  his  naked  feet, 
lest  they  should  freeze  to  the  icy  pavement. 
He  starves  in  the  midst  of  abundance.  Ne 
glected  among  a  people  who  would  take  more 
pity  on  an  ill-used  horse  or  a  dying  dog,  he  is 
a  castaway  upon  the  land.  Of  the  throngs 
that  pass  heedlessly  by  him  to  homes  of  com 
fort,  intent  on  business  or  on  pleasure,  there 
is  no  one  cares  for  him.  Poor  wretch  !  0  if 
he  knew  a  Bible  which  none  has  taught  him, 
how  might  he  plant  himself  before  us,  and  bar 
our  way  to  church  or  prayer-meeting,  saying, 
as  he  fixed  on  us  an  imploring  eye?  "  Pure  re- 


ITS   SINS   ASD   SORROWS.  97 

ligion  and  undefiled  before  God"  is  to  feed  me 
— is  to  clothe  these  naked  limbs — is  to  fill  up 
these  hollow  cheeks — is  to  pour  the  light  of 
knowledge  into  this  darkened  soul — is  to  save 
me — is  not  to  go  to  house  of  Glod  or  place  of 
prayer,  but  first  coming  with  me  to  our  miser 
able  home,  "  to  visit  the  widow  and  fatherless 
in  their  affliction,  and  keep  thy  garments  un 
spotted  from  the  world." 

You  can  test  the  truth  of  these  statements. 
You  have  only  to  walk  along  the  street  to 
verify  them.  Yet  bad  as  it  looks,  and  bad  as 
it  is,  the  street  reveals  not  half  the  evil.  I 
know  that  some  look  with  suspicion  upon  our 
statements.  They  doubt  whether  matters  be 
low  are  so  bad  as  we  report.  They  insinuate 
that  surely  we  are  exaggerating  existing  evils. 
Well,  there  is  nothing  more  easy,  although 
there  might  be  many  things  more  noble,  than 
to  lie  beneath  bright  skies,  and  amid  gay 
company,  and  on  a  flowery  sward,  and  dis 
miss  with  an  incredulous  smile  the  claims 
of  suffering  humanity.  It  were  more  like 
a  man  and  a  Christian  to  throw  yourself  into 


98  THE  CITY: 

the  bucket,  seize  the  chain,  go  down  into  the 
pit  and  put  the  matter  to  the  proof.  We 
invite  you  to  do  that  which  will  rudely  dis 
sipate  every  doubt,  and  bring  you  up,  a 
better  and  wiser  man,  to  say  with  Sheba's 
Queen,  "  The  half  was  not  told  me."  Mean 
while,  come  along  with  me,  while  I  again 
travel  over  some  bygone  scenes. 

Look  there!  In  that  corpse  you  see  the 
cold,  dead  body  of  one  of  the  best  and  god- 
liest  mothers  it  was  ever  our  privilege  to 
know.  She  had  a  son.  He  was  the  stay 
of  her  widowhood — so  kind,  so  affectionate, 
so  loving.  Some  are  taken  away  from  the 
"  evil  to  come ;"  laid  in  the  lap  of  mother 
earth,  safe  beneath  the  grave's  green  sod, 
they  hear  not  and  heed  not  the  storm  that 
rages  above.  Such  was  not  her  happy  for 
tune.  She  lived  to  see  that  son  a  disgrace, 
and  all  the  promises  of  his  youth  blighted 
and  gone.  He  was  drawn  into  habits  of 
intemperance.  On  her  knees  she  pleaded 
with  him.  On  her  knees  she  prayed  for 
him.  How  mysterious  are  the  ways  of  Provi- 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  99 

dence  !  She  did  not  live  to  see  him  changed  ; 
and  with  such  thorns  in  her  pillow,  such  dag 
gers,  planted  by  such  a  hand,  in  her  heart, 
she  could  not  live.  She  sank  under  these 
griefs,  and  died  of  a  broken  heart.  We  told 
him  so.  With  bitter,  burning  tears  he  owned 
it;  charging  himself  with  his  mother's  death 
— confessing  himself  a  mother's  murderer. 
Crushed  with  sorrow,  and  all  alone,  he  went 
to  see  the  body.  Alone,  beside  that  cold, 
dead,  unreproaching  mother,  he  knelt  down 
and  wept  out  his  terrible  remorse.  After 
a  while  he  rose.  Unfortunately — how  unfor 
tunate  that  a  spirit  bottle  should  have  been 
left  there — his  eye  fell  on  the  old  tempter. 
You  have  seen  the  iron  approach  the  magnet. 
Call  it  spell,  call  it  fascination,  call  it  anything 
bad,  demoniacal,  but  as  the  iron  is  drawn  to 
the  magnet,  or  as  a  fluttering  bird,  fascinated 
by  the  burning  eye  and  glittering  skin  of 
the  serpent,  walks  into  its  envenomed,  ex 
panded  jaws,  so  was  he  drawn  to  the  bottle. 
Wondering  at  his  delay,  they  entered  the 
room;  and  now  the  bed  holds  two  bodies 


100  THE  CITY: 

—a  dead  mother,  and  her  dead-drunk  son. 
What  a  sight !  what  a  humbling,  horrible 
spectacle!  And  what  a  change  from  those 
happy  times,  when  night  drew  her  peaceful 
curtains  around  the  same  son  and  mother — 
he,  a  sweet  babe,  sleeping,  angel-like,  within 
her  loving  arms!  "  How  is  the  gold  become 
dim,  the  most  fine  gold  changed!" 

Or  look  there.  The  bed  beside  which  you 
have  at  other  visits  conversed  and  prayed 
with  one  who,  in  the  very  bloom  and  flower 
of  youth,  was  withering  away  under  a  slow 
decline — is  empty.  The  living  need  it;  and 
so  its  long,  and  spent,  and  weary  tenant  lies 
now,  stretched  out  in  death,  on  the  top  of  two 
rude  chests  beside  the  window.  And  as  you 
stand  by  the  body — contemplating  it — in  that 
pallid  face  lighted  up  by  a  passing  sun-gleam 
you  see,  along  with  lingering  traces  of  no 
common  beauty,  the  calmness  and  peace  which 
were  her  latter  end.  But  in  this  hot,  sultry, 
summer  weather,  why  lies  she  there  uncoffined  ? 
Drink  has  left  us  to  do  that  last  office  for  the 
dead.  Her  father — how  un worth  v  the  name 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  101 

of  father— when  his  daughter  pled  with  him 
for  his  soul,  pled  with  him  for  her  mother, 
pled  with  him  for  her  little  sister,  had  stood 
by  her  dying  pillow  to  damn  her— fiercely 
damning  her  to  her  face.  He  has  left  his  poor, 
dead  child  to  the  care  of  others.  With  the 
wages  he  retains  for  drink,  he  refuses  to  buy 
that  lifeless  form  a  coffin  and  a  grave ! 

Or  look  there.     You  have  found  a  young 
man,  the  victim  of  an  incurable  malady,  sink 
ing  into  the   tomb.     Dying  is   hard   enough 
work   amid   all  the  comforts  which   weilth, 
and  kindness,  and  piety  can  command;  but 
in  that  winter  time,  with  the   frosty   wind 
blowing  through  the  broken    panes,    he   is 
shivering   while   he   seeks  in    the   Bible   its 
precious  comforts ;  and  how  much  his  body 
is   emaciated  is  too   plainly  visible  beneath 
that  single   threadbare  coverlet.     You  could 
not    have   stood   that;    no   more    could   we. 
And  where,  at  our  next  visit,  are  the  warm 
comforts  charity  had  provided?     They  have 
gone  for  drink  !     Gone  for  drink  I     For  such 
purpose,  what  incarnate  demons  have  plucked 


102  THE  CITY: 

the  blankets  from  that  wasted  form — steeling 
their  iron  hearts  against  his  cries,  his  struggles, 
his  unavailing  tears  ?  Accursed  vice !  that 
can  sink  man  beneath  the  brutes  that  perish. 
The  barbarous  deed  was  done  by  a  father's 
hand!  That  father,  instigated  and  aided  by 
her  who  had  suckled  him  on  her  breast,  a 
breast  twice  withered — by  worse  than  age, 
deformed  and  dried  up  I 

Did  I  say  sinks  man  beneath  the  brutes  that 
perish  ?  It  is  a  libel  on  creation  to  speak  of  a 
drunkard  as  a  brute.  The  bear,  when  she  re 
fuses  to  desert  her  cub,  when  she  makes  the 
most  daring,  desperate  efforts  to  protect  her 
offspring,  when,  rearing  herself  on  her  hind 
feet,  she  stands  up  growling  to  face  the  hunter, 
and  offer  her  shaggy  bosom  to  his  spear,  ex 
torts  our  admiration ;  as  does  the  little  crea 
ture  which,  when  the  spear  is  buried  in  a 
mother's  heart,  leaps  on  her  dead  body,  and, 
giving  battle  to  the  dogs,  attempts  bravely, 
though  vainly  to  defend  it.  Look  at  this  case, 
and  that.  How  beautiful  is  nature,  how  base 
is  sin  I  Dr.  Kane  tells  a  story  of  a  savage 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  103 

man  in  those  arctic  regions,  where  God  has 
poured  such  affection  into  the  bosom  of  the 
fiercest   animals,    which     excites    our    pity. 
ISToluk,  when  all  other  families  in  the  time 
of  famine  had  fled  from  their  sick,  remained 
faithful  to  his  wife.     She  was  dying.     From 
waging  fierce  battle  with  the  monsters  of  the 
deep,  scaling  the  slippery  iceberg,  leaping  the 
cracks  of   the   ice-floe,    homeward   over   the 
snowy  wastes  he  drove  his  sledge  each  night, 
with  food  for  her.     The  evening  of  his  last 
visit  arrives.     He  approaches  the  rude  stone- 
hut,  looks  in,  and  through  a  window  sees  his 
wife  a  corpse,  and  his  infant  son  sucking  at 
her   frozen   breast.     Instinct   moved   him   to 
enter,   pluck    away   the   child,    and   make   a 
daring  effort  to  save   its  life   and  his  own. 
But  the  burden  of  a  sucking  babe,  the  press 
ing  fears  of  famine,  these  mastered  parental 
affection  ;  and,  claiming  our  pity  for  the  grief 
that  stood  in  his  eye  and  wrung  his  heart,  he 
turned  his  dogs  southward,  nor  crossed  the 
threshold. 

But  what  emotions  do  the  cases  I  have  told 


104  THE   CITY: 

you  of  awaken?  To  be  matched  by  many 
and  surpassed  by  some  that  I  could  tell — sam 
ples  of  the  stock,  what  passion  can  they,  what 
passion  ought  they  to  move,  but  the  deepest 
indignation  ?  Nor  would  I,  however  fiercely 
it  may  run,  seek  to  stem  the  flood.  The  deep 
er  it  flows,  the  higher  it  rises,  the  stronger  it 
swells  and  rolls,  so  much  the  better.  I  would 
not  seek  to  stem,  but  to  direct  it — directing  it 
not  against  the  victims,  but  against  the  vice. 

I  pray  you  do  not  hate  the  drunkard ;  he 
hates  himself.  Do  not  despise  him ;  oh,  he 
cannot  sink  so  low  in  your  opinion  as  he  is 
sunk  in  his  own.  Your  hatred  and  contempt 
may  rivet,  but  will  never  rend  his  chains. 
Lend  a  kind  hand  to  pluck  him  from  the  mire. 
With  a  strong  hand  shatter  that  bowl — re 
move  the  temptations  which,  while  he  hates, 
he  cannot  resist.  Hate,  abhor,  tremble  at  his 
sin.  And  for  pity's  sake,  for  God's  sake,  for 
Christ's  sake,  for  humanity's  sake,  rouse  your 
selves  to  the  question,  What  can  be  done? 
Without  heeding  others — whether  they  follow 
or  whether  they  stay — rushing  down  to  the 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  105 

beach,    throw   yourself  into   the  boat,    push 
away,  and  bend  on  the  oar,  like  a  man,  to  the 
,vreck.     Say,  I  will  not  stand  by  and  see  my 
fellow-creatures  perish.     They  are  perishing. 
To  save  them  I  will  do  anything.     What  lux 
ury  will  I  not  give   up?     "What  indulgence 
will  I  not  abstain  from  ?    What  customs,  what 
shackles  of  old  habits  will  I  not  break,  that 
these  hands  may  be  freer  to  pluck  the  drown 
ing  from  the  deep  ?     God  my  help,  his  word 
my  law,  the  love  of  his  Son  my  ruling  motive, 
I  shall  never  balance  a  poor  personal  indul 
gence  against  the  good  of  my  country  and  the 
welfare  of  mankind.     Brethren,  such  resolu 
tions,  such  high,  and  holy,  and  sustained,  and 
self-denying  efforts,  the  height  of  this  evil  de 
mands. 

Before  God  and  man,  before  the  church  and 
the  world,  I  impeach  Intemperance.  I  charge 
it  with  the  murder  of  innumerable  souls.  In 
this  country,  blessed  with  freedom  and  plenty, 
the  word  of  God  and  the  liberties  of  true  re 
ligion,  I  charge  it  as  the  cause— whatever  be 
their  source  elsewhere — of  almost  all  the  pov- 


106  THE  CITY: 

erty,  and  almost  all  the  crime,  and  almost  all 
the  misery,  and  almost  all  the  ignorance,  and 
almost  all  the  irreligion,  that  disgrace  and 
afflict  the  land.  "  I  am  not  mad,  most  noble 
Festus.  I  speak  the  words  of  truth  and  sober 
ness."  I  do  in  my  conscience  believe  that 
these  intoxicating  stimulants  have  sunk  into 
perdition  more  men  and  women  than  found  a 
grave  in  that  deluge  which  swept  over  the 
highest  hill-tops — engulphing  a  world,  of 
which  but  eight  were  saved.  As  compared 
with  other  vices,  it  may  be  said  of  this,  "  Saul 
has  slain  his  thousands,  but  David  his  tens  of 
thousands." 

3.  Consider  what  cure  we  should  apply  to  this 
evil. 

The  grand  and  only  sovereign  remedy  for 
the  evils  of  this  world  is  the  gospel  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  believe  that.  There  is 
no  man  more  convinced  of  that  than  I  am. 
But  he  rather  hinders  than  helps  the  cause  of 
religion  who  shuts  his  eyes  to  the  fact,  that,  in 
curing  souls,  as  in  curing  bodies,  many  things 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  107 

may  be  important  as  auxiliaries  to  the  remedy, 
which  cannot  properly  be  considered  as  reme 
dies.  In  the  day  of  his  resurrection  Lazarus 
owed  his  life  to  Christ ;  but  they  that  day  did 
good  service,  who  rolled  away  the  stone. 
They  were  allies  and  auxiliaries.  And  to 
such  in  the  battle  which  the  gospel  has  to 
wage  with  this  monster  vice,  allow  me  in 
closing  this  discourse  to  direct  your  attention. 
And  I  remark — 

First,  That  the  legislature  may  render  essential 
service  in  this  cause. 

This  is  an  alliance  between  church  and  state 
which  no  man  could  quarrel  with.  Happy 
for  our  country,  if  by  such  help,  the  state 
would  thus  fulfil  to  the  church — the  woman 
of  prophecy — this  apocalyptic  vision  : — "  And 
the  serpent  cast  out  of  his  mouth,  water  as  a 
flood,  after  the  woman,  that  he  might  cause 
her  to  be  carried  away  of  the  flood.  And  the 
earth  helped  the  woman.  And  the  earth 
opened  her  mouth,  and  swallowed  up  the 
flood  which  the  dragon  cast  out  of  his  mouth." 

Many  people  feel   no  sympathy   with  the 


108  THE   CITY: 

sufferings  of  the  lowest  class.     They  are  not 
hard-hearted ;  but  engrossed  with  their  own 
affairs,  or,  raised  far  above  them  in  social  po 
sition,  they  are  ignorant  of  their  temptations, 
and  trials.      Therefore  they  talk  ignorantly 
about  them ;  and   seldom  more  so  than  when 
they  repudiate  all  attempts  of  the  legislature 
by  restrictive  Acts  of  Parliament  to  abate,  if 
not  abolish,  this  evil.     They  have  their  reme 
dies.      Some  plead  for  better  lodgings   and 
sanitary  measures ;  which  we  also  regard  as 
highly  valuable.     Some  put  their  faith  in  edu 
cation—an  agent,  the  importance  of  which,  to 
the  rising  generation,  it  is  impossible  to  over 
estimate.     Some  seem  to  have  no  confidence 
in  anything  but  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 
To  one  or  other  of  these,  or  the  combined  in 
fluence  of  them  all,  they  trust  for  the  cure  of 
drunkenness— repudiating  and  deprecating  all 
legislative  interference.     Now,  I  should  like 
as°muc!i  as  they  to  see  the  very  lowest  of  our 
people  so  elevated  in  their  tastes,  with  minds 
so  cultivated,  and  hearts  so   sanctified,  that 
they  could  resist   the   temptations  which  on 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  109 

every  hand  beset  them.     But  thousands,  tens 
of  thousands,  are  unable  to  do  so.     They  must 
be   helped  with  crutches   till   they  have   ac 
quired  the  power  to   walk.     They  must  be 
fenced  round  with  every  possible  protection 
until  they  are  "  rooted  and  grounded  in  the 
love  of  God."     In  the  country  I  have  often 
seen  a  little  child,  with  her  sun-browned  face 
and  long  golden  locks,  sweet  as  any  flower 
she  pressed  beneath  her  naked  foot,  merry  as 
any  bird  that  sung  from  bush  or  brake,  driv 
ing  the  cattle  home ;  and  with  fearless  hand 
controlling  the  sulky  leader  of  the  herd,  as 
with  armed  forehead  and  colossal  strength  he 
quailed   before   that    slight    image    of   God. 
Some  days  ago,  I  saw  a  different  sight — such 
a  child,  with  hanging  head,  no  music  in  his 
voice,  nor  blush  but  that  of  shame  upon  his 
cheek,  leading  home  a  drunken  father  along 
the  public  street.     The  man   required  to  be 
led,  guided,  guarded.     And  into  a  condition 
hardly  less  helpless  large  masses  of  our  people 
have  sunk.     I  don't  wonder  that  they  drink. 
Look  at  their  unhappy  and  most  trying  cir- 


110  THE  CITY: 

cumstances.  Many  of  them  are  born  with  a 
propensity  to  this  vice.  They  suck  it  in  with 
a  mother's  milk;  for  it  is  a  well-ascertained 
fact  that  other  things  are  hereditary  besides 
cancer,  and  consumption,  and  insanity.  The 
drunken  parent  transmits  to  his  children  a 
proneness  to  his  fatal  indulgence.  The  foul 
atmosphere  which  many  of  them  breathe,  the 
hard  labor  by  which  many  of  them  earn  their 
bread,  produce  a  prostration  which  seeks  in 
stimulants  something  to  rally  the  system,  nor 
will  be  debarred  from  their  use  by  any  pros 
pect  of  danger,  or  experience  of  a  correspond 
ing  reaction.  With  our  improved  tastes,  our 
books,  our  recreations,  our  domestic  comforts, 
we  have  no  adequate  idea  of  the  temptations 
to  which  the  poor  are  exposed,  and  from 
which  it  is  the  truest  kindness  to  protect  them. 
They  are  cold,  and  the  glass  is  warmth.  They 
are  hungry,  and  drink  is  food.  They  are 
miserable,  and  there  is  laughter  in  the  flowing 
cup.  They  are  sunk  in  their  own  esteem,  and 
the  bowl  or  the  bottle  surrounds  the  drunkard 
with  a  bright-colored  halo  of  self-respect,  and, 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  HI 

so  long  as  the  fumes  are  in  his  brain,  he  feels 
himself  a  man.     "  They  drink  to  forget  their 
poverty,  and  remember  their  misery  no  more." 
Such   indeed  has  been   the  only  training, 
such  are  the  physical,  economical,  moral,  and 
religious   conditions   of  large   masses  of  the 
people,  that  their  safety  lies,  not  in  resisting 
temptation,  but  escaping  it.     None  know  that 
better  than  themselves.     How  would  thou 
sands  hail  and  bless  the  day,  which,  shutting 
up  the  drinking-shops,  would  preserve  them 
from  temptations  which  are  their  ruin,  and  to 
which  they  at  length  passively  yield  them 
selves  ;  although,  as  one  said,  they  know  their 
doors  to  be  the  way  to  hell.     Yet  not  passive 
ly,  until  this  fatal  pleasure  has  paralyzed  the 
mind  more  even  than  the  body.     Many  strug 
gle  hard  to  overcome  this  passion.     There  is  a 
long  and  terrible  fight  between  the  man  and 
the  serpent  that  has  him  in  his  coils ;  between 
the  love  of  wife  and  children  and  the  love  of 
drink.     Never  more  manfully  than  some  of 
them  did  swimmer  struggle  in  his  hour  of 
agony  — breasting  the   waves   and    straining 


112  THE  CITY: 

every  nerve  to  reacli  the  distant  sliore.  Would 
Parliament  but  leave  this  matter  to  these  peo 
ple  themselves — would  they  for  once  delegate 
their  powers  of  legislation  to  the  inhabitants 
of  our  lowest  districts — we  are  confident  that, 
by  their  all  but  unanimous  vote,  every  drink- 
ing-shop  in  their  neighborhoods  would  be 
shut  up.  The  birds,  which  are  now  drawn 
into  the  mouth  of  the  serpent,  would  soar 
aloft  on  free  and  joyous  wing  to  sing  the 
praises  of  the  hand  that  closed  its  jaws,  of  the 
heel  that  crushed  its  head.  And  so  long  as 
religion  stands  by — silent  and  unprotesting 
against  the  temptations  with  which  men, 
greedy  of  gain,  and  Governments,  greedy  of 
revenue,  surround  the  wretched  victims  of  the 
basest  vice — it  appears  to  me  an  utter  mock 
ery  for  her  to  go  with  the  word  of  God  in  her 
hand,  teaching  them  to  say,  "Lead  us  not  into 
temptation." 

As  a  man,  as  well  as  minister  of  that  blessed 
gospel  which  recognizes  no  distinction  between 
rich  and  poor,  I  protest  against  the  wrongs  of 
a  class  that  are  to  the  full  as  unfortunate  as 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  113 

they  are  guilty.     They  deserve  succor  rather 
than  censure.   They  are  more  to  be  pitied  than 
punished.     And,  assuming  the  office  of  their 
advocate,  I   wish   to   know   why  the   upper 
classes  of  society  should  enjoy  from  the  legis 
lature  a  protection  denied  to  those  who  stand 
more  in  need  of  it  ?     Gambling-houses  were 
proved  before  Parliament  to  be  ruining  the 
youth  of  the  aristocracy.   Nobility  complained. 
Coronets  and  broad   acres   were   in   danger. 
Parliament  rose  to  the  rescue.     She  put  forth 
her  strong  hand,  and  by  a  sweeping,  summary, 
most  righteous  measure,  put  the  evil  down. 
It  was  also  proved  in  Parliament  that  Betting- 
houses   were   corrupting   the   morals   of    our 
merchants'  clerks,  our  shopmen,   our  trades 
men,  and  others  of  the  middle  classes  of  so 
ciety.     Once  more  Parliament  rose  up  in  its 
might,  threw  its  broad  shield  over  wealth  and 
commerce,  and  closed  every  betting-house  in 
the  metropolis.     Who  talked  then  about  the 
freedom  of  trade?     "When  the  honor  of  noble 
families,  or  the  wealth,  of  our  merchants,  and 
the  honesty  of  their  servants  demanded  pro- 
10* 


114  THE  CITY: 

tection,  who  talked  about  the  liberty  of  the 
subject?  Who  proposed  to  leave  these  evils 
to  be  met  by  education  and  such  means  as 
education?  I  don't  complain  of,  but  com 
mend  the  measures  which  Parliament  adopted. 
Only,  I  want  to  know,  if  the  virtues  of  hum 
ble  families  and  the  happiness  of  the  poor  are 
less  worthy  of  protection  than  the  wealth  of 
bankers,  and  the  honors  of  an  ancient  nobil 
ity  ?  I  want  to  know  if  the  bodies  of  the 
higher  and  wealthier  classes  are  of  better  clay, 
or  their  souls  of  finer  elements,  than  those  of 
the  very  lowest  of  the  people  ?  Yet  I  would 
undertake  to  prove  that,  year  by  year,  thou 
sands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  our  poor  lose 
character,  virtue,  fortune,  body  and  soul,  in 
those  drinking-shops  that  glare  upon  the  pub 
lic  eye — which  the  law  does  not  forbid,  but 
license.  For  every  one  the  gambling  or  bet 
ting-house  ruined,  they  ruin  hundreds.  I 
wish  that  those  who  govern  this  noble  coun 
try  should  be  able  to  say  with  Him  who  gov 
erns  the  universe,  a  Are  not  my  ways  equal  ?" 
Nor  let  our  legislators  be  scared  from  their 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  115 

duty  in  this  case,  any  more  than  they  were  in 
the  other,  by  the  allegation  that  to  shut  up 
the  drinking-shop  will  not  cure  but  rather  ag 
gravate  the  evil,  by  leading  to  illicit  traffic 
and   secret  drinking.      The  removal    of  the 
temptation  may  not  always  cure  the  drunk 
ard.     But  it  will  certainly  check  the  growth 
of  his  class,  and  prevent  many  others  from 
learning  his  habits— until  sanguine  men  might 
entertain  the  blessed  hope  that,  like  the  mon 
sters  of  a  former  epoch,  which  now  lie  en 
tombed  in  the  rocks,  drunkards  may  be  num 
bered  among  the  extinct  races,  classified  with 
the  winged  serpents  and  gigantic  sloths  that 
were  once  inhabitants  of  our  globe. 

The  subject  before  us  is  eminently  calculated 

to  illustrate  the  profound  remark  of  one,  who 

was  well  acquainted  with  the  temptations  and 

circumstances  of  the  poor.     He  said: — "It  is 

justice,  not  charity,  that  the  poor  most  need." 

And  all  we  ask  is,  that  you  be  as  kind  to  them 

as  to  the  rich ;  that  you  guard  the  one  class  as 

carefully  as  you  guard  the   other  from  the 

temptations  peculiar  to  their  lot.    I  am  sorry 


116  THE  CITY: 

to  say — "but  truth  and  the  interests  of  those 
who,  however  sunk  and  degraded,  are  bone  of 
our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  require  that  I 
should  say — that  this  is  not  done.  The  "poor," 
says  Amos,   "are  sold  for  a  pair  of  shoes/' 
and  with  us  they  are  sold  to  save  the  wealth 
of  the  rich.     In  this  I  make  no  charge  which 
I  am  not  prepared  to  prove.     For  example : — 
Certain  measures  were  proposed  in  Parliament 
with  the  view  of  promoting  the  comforts  and 
improving  the  moral  habits  of  the  common 
people.    -It  was  admitted  that  these,  by  intro 
ducing  weak  French  and  Rhenish  wines  in 
room  of  ardent  spirits  and  strongly  intoxicat 
ing  liquors,  would  be  attended  with  the  most 
happy  and   desirable  result.     Yet  they  were 
rejected.      And  rejected  because  their  adop 
tion,  although  it  saved  the  people,  would  dam 
age  the  revenue.     As  if  there  was  not  money 
enough  in  the  pockets  of  the  wealthy,  through 
means  of  other  taxes,  to  meet  the  debts  of  the 
nation  and  sustain  the  honor  of  the  Crown. 
How  different  the   tone   of  morals  even  in 
China  1    The  ministers  of  that  country  proved 


ITS   SINS  AND  SOK110WS. 


117 


to  their  sovereign  that  he   would   avert  all 
danger  of  war  with  Britain,  and  also  add  im 
mensely  to   his  revenue,  if  he  would  consent 
to  legalize  the  trade  in  opium.     He  refused, 
firmly  refused,  nobly  refused.     And  it  were  a 
glorious  day  for  Britain,  a  happy  day  for  ten 
thousand  miserable  homes— a  day  for  bonfires, 
and  jubilant  cannon,    and  merry  bells,   and 
bannered  processions,  and  holy  thanksgivings, 
which  saw  our  beloved   Queen  rise  from  her 
throne,  and  in  the  name  of  this  great  nation 
address  to  her  Lords  and  Commons  the  mem 
orable  speech  of  that  pagan  monarch:— 
will  never  consent  to  raise  my  revenue  out  of 
the  ruin  and  vices  of  my  people."    "With  such 
a  spirit  may  God  imbue  our  land!—"  Even  so 
come,  Lord  Jesus.     Come  quickly." 

Secondly,  That  the  example  of  abstaining  from 
all  intoxicating  liquors  would  greatly  aid  in  the 
cure  of  this  evil. 

No  principle  is  more  clearly  inculcated  in 
the  word  of  God,  and  none,  carried  out  into 
action,  makes  a  man  more  Christ-like  than 
self-denial.  "  If  meat  make  my  brother  to  of- 


118  THE   CITY: 

fend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the  world  stand- 
eth,  lest  I  make  my  brother  to  offend."  That 
is  the  principle  of  temperance,  as  I  hold  it.  I 
cannot  agree  with  those  who,  in  their  anxiety 
for  good,  attempt  to  prove  too  much,  and  con 
demn  as  positively  sinful  the  moderate  use  of 
stimulants.  But  still  less  sympathy  have  I 
with  those  who  dare  to  call  in  Jesus  Christ  to 
lend  his  holy  countenance  to  their  luxurious 
boards.  It  is  shocking  to  hear  men  attempt 
to  prove,  by  the  word  of  God,  that  it  is  a  duty 
to  drink — to  fill  the  wine-cup  and  drain  off 
the  glass. 

I  was  able  to  use  without  abusing.  But 
seeing  to  what  monstrous  abuse  the  thing  had 
grown,  seeing  in  what  a  multitude  of  cases  the 
use  was  followed  by  the  abuse,  and  seeing  how 
the  example  of  the  upper  classes,  the  practices 
of  ministers,  and  the  habits  of  church  mem 
bers  were  used  to  shield  and  sanction  indulg 
ences  so  often  carried  to  excess,  I  saw  the  case 
to  be  one  for  the  apostle's  warning  : — "  Take 
heed  lest  by  any  means  this  liberty  of  yours 
become  a  stumbling  block  to  them  that  are 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  119 

weak."     Paul  says  of  meat  offered  unto  an 
idol:— "Meat  commendeth  us  not  to  God; 
for  neither  if  we  eat  are  we  the  better,  neither 
if  we  eat  not  are  we  the  worse."     And  will 
any  man   deny,  that,  save  in   medical  cases, 
I  can  with  the  most  perfect  truth  adopt  the 
words  of  inspiration,  and  say  of  these  stim 
ulants   what  Paul  says  of  meat:  — "Drink 
commendeth  us  not  to  God ;  for  neither  if  we 
drink  are  we  the  better,  and  neither  if  we 
drink  not  are  we  the  worse."     On  the  contra 
ry,  the  testimony  of  physicians,  the  experience 
of  those  who,  in  arctic  cold  or  Indian  heat, 
have  been  exposed  to  influences  the  most  try 
ing  to  the  constitution ;  the  experience  also  of 
every  one  who  has  exchanged  temperate  in 
dulgence  for  rigid  abstinence,  have  demon 
strated  that,  if  we  drink  not,  we  are  the  bet 
ter.    There  is  no  greater  delusion  in  this  world 
than  that  health,  or  strength,  or  joyousness  is 
dependent  on  the  use  of  stimulants.     So  far  as 
happiness  is  concerned,  we  can  afford  to  leave 
such  means  to  those  who  inhabit  the  doleful 
dens  of  sin.     They  cannot  want  them.     They 


120  THE  CITY: 

Lave  to  relieve  the  darkness  with  lurid  gleams. 
They  have  to  drown  remorse  in  the  bowl's  ob 
livion.  They  have  to  bury  the  recollection  of 
what  they  were,  the '  sense  of  what  they  are, 
and  the  foreboding  of  what  they  shall  be — as 
one  of  them  said,  "we  poor  girls  could  not 
lead  the  life  we  do  without  the  drink." 

Grant  that  there  were  a  sacrifice  in  abstain 
ing,  what  Christian  man  would  hesitate  to 
make  it,  if  by  doing  so  he  can  honor  God  and 
bless  mankind  ?  If  by  a  life-long  abstinence 
from  all  the  pleasures  which  the  wine-cup 
yields  I  can  save  one  child  from  a  life  of  mis 
ery,  I  can  save  one  mother  from  premature 
grey  hairs,  and  griefs  that  bring  her  to  the 
grave,  I  can  save  one  woman-  from  ruin, 
bringing  him  to  Jesus  I  can  save  one  man 
from  perdition,  I  should  hold  myself  well  re 
paid.  Living  thus,  living  not  for  myself,  when 
death  summons  me  to  my  account,  and  the 
Judge  says,  Man,  where  is  thy  brother?  I 
shall  be  found  walking,  although  at  a  hum 
ble  distance,  in  the  footprints  of  him  who  took 
his  way  to  Calvary.  He  said7  "  If  any  man 


ITS   SINS  AND   SORROYYS.  121 

will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and 
take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow  me."  This 
cross,  which  has  been  held  high  in  the  battle 
field  by  men  nobly  fighting  for  their  faith, 
which  rose  above  the  scaffold  red  with  mar 
tyr's  blood,  which  has  been  borne  by  mission 
aries  to  pagan  lands,  may  be  carried  into  our 
scenes  of  social  enjoyment,  and,  a  brighter 
ornament  than  any  jewels  flashing  on  beauty's 
breast,  may  adorn  the  festive  table.  If  this 
abstinence  is  a  cross,  all  the  more  honor  to 
the  men  who  carry  it.  It  is  a  right  noble 
thing  to  live  for  God  and  the  good  of  men. 

I  attempt  to  dictate  on  this  subject  to  no 
man.  Believing  it  to  be  one  specially  open 
to  the  apostolic  rule,  "  Let  every  man  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind;"  I  would  yet 
venture  to  appeal  to  my  brethren  in  the  min 
istry,  and  to  the  members  of  every  Christian 
church.  There  cannot  be  a  doubt,  not  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  if,  devoting  your 
selves  Christ-like  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
good  of  men,  you  saw  it  to  be  your  duty  to 
embrace  the  principle  of  abstinence,  the  result 


1 1 


122  THE  CITY: 

would  be  remarkable.  Such  would  be  the 
influence  of  your  example  within  your  own 
household,  and  outside  in  your  different  neigh 
borhoods,  and  such  also  the  power  which  you 
could  exercise  in  the  Parliament  of  our  coun 
try,  that  intemperance  with  all  its  direful 
damning  consequences  would  be,  to  a  great 
extent  and  in  time,  banished  from  the  land. 
What  a  land  ours  then  would  be !  Eelieved 
from  this  mill-stone  which  hangs  about  her 
neck,  and  weighs  her  down  and  bends  her 
giant  power  to  the'  earth,  into  what  an  attitude 
and  height  of  power  would  she  rise  ?  Who 
then  would  dare  to  insult  her  flag  ?  Who  then 
would  dare  to  cross  her  path,  when  she  went 
forth  in  her  might  and  virtue  to  assert  the  lib 
erties  of  the  world — to  break  the  fetters  of  the 
slave  or  fight  the  battle  of  the  oppressed. 
She  would  hear  no  more  taunts  from  the 
slave-holders  of  the  West  or  the  despots  of  the 
South.  Her  piety,  and  sobriety,  and  virtues, 
preserving  salt,  elements  of  national  immor 
tality,  she  might  hope  to  be  exempted  from 
the  fate  of  all  preceding  empires,  that,  one 


ITS   SINS   AND   SOR110WS.  123 

after  another,  in   unfailing  succession,    Lave 
gone  down  into  the  tomb. 

This  moral  revolution  in  our  national  habits, 
this  greatest  of  all  reforms,  every  one  can  en 
gage  in.     Women   and  children,  as  well  as 
men,  can  help  it  onwards  to  the  goal.     It  is 
attainable,  if  we  would  only  attempt  it.     It  is 
hopeful,  if  we  would  but  give  the  subject  a 
fair    consideration.      Why    should    not    the 
power  of  Christianity,  by   its  mighty  argu 
ments  of  love  and   self- denial,   lead   to  the 
disuse    of   intoxicating    stimulants,    and     so 
achieve    that    which    Mahommedanism    and 
Hindooism  have  done  ?     Must  the  cross  pale 
before  the  crescent  ?     Must  the  divine  religion 
of  Jesus,  with  that  God-man  upon  the  tree 
for  its  invincible  ensign,  blush  before  such 
rivals,  and  own  itself  unable  to   accomplish 
what  false  faiths   have  done?     Tell   us   not 
that  it  cannot  be  done.     It  can  be  done.     It 
has  been  done— done  by  the  enemies  of  the 
cross  of  Christ-— done  by  the  followers  of  an 
impostor— done  by  worshippers  of  stocks  and 
stones.     "And    their    rock  is   not  like  ou: 


124:        THE   CITY  I    ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS. 

Kock."  If  that  is  true — and  it  cannot  be 
gainsaid — I  may  surely  claim  from  every  man 
who  has  faith  in  God,  and  loves  Jesus,  and 
is  willing  to  live  for  the  benefit  of  mankind, 
a  candid,  a  full,  and  a  prayerful  consideration 
of  this  subject.  But,  whatever  be  the  means, 
whatever  the  weapons  you  will  judge  it  best 
to  employ,  when  trumpets  are  blowing  in 
Zion,  and  the  alarm  is  sounding  and  echoing 
in  God's  holy  mountain,  come — come  to  the 
help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty,  crowd  to 
the  standard,  throw  yourself  into  the  thick 
of  battle,  and  die  in  harness  fighting  for  the 
cause  of  Jesus.  So  "  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to 
die  is  gain." 


SERMON    IV. 

"  When  he  beheld  the  city,  he  wept  over  it."— LUKE  xix.  41. 

A  REMARKABLE  incident  occurred  dur 
ing  the  last  unhappjr,  and — since  it  was 
waged  between  brethren,  sprung  of  a  common 
parentage,  and  holding  a  common  faith — I  will 
add,  unnatural  war  between  our  country  and 
America.  We  had  taken  a  prize.  A  very 
gallant  young  officer  was  placed  in  command 
of  her.  Unfortunately  for  us,  as  the  event 
proved,  her  original  captain  and  part  of  his 
crew,  were  not  transferred  to  another  ship, 
but  allowed  to  remain  on  board.  The  British 
lieutenant  had  a  number  of  our  own  brave 
men  sent  along  with  him — a  force  sufficient 
to  work  the  ship,  and,  in  a  fair  stand  up  fight, 
to  overpower  the  prisoners,  should  they  at 
tempt  to  retake  the  vessel.  Hoisting  British 
colors,  they  parted  company  with  the  captur- 
11* 


126  THE  CITY: 

ing  ship,  and  with  our  officer  on  the  quarter 
deck  made  homeward  with  their  prize.     On 
ward  the  ship  ploughs  her  way  through  the 
billows,  and  all  seems  safe.     After  some  time, 
the  American  captain  accosts  our  officer  on 
the  deck.     He  desires  him  to  give  up  his  sword 
and  the  command  of  the  vessel.     Surprised, 
indignant  at  such  a  strange  and  insolent  de 
mand,  he  prepares  to  resist.     Whereupon  the 
American,  drawing  a  pistol  from  his  belt  to 
meet  the  other's  sword,  conscious  of  his  power, 
but  unwilling  to  shed  the  blood  of  a  gallant 
man,  coolly  added:— "You  must  surrender, 
your  men  are  all  drunk  below."     The  officer, 
however,  did  resist,  and  was  shot  dead.     His 
life  was  thrown   away ;    his  gallant  bravery 
was  of  no  avail.     Intemperance  had  betrayed 
the  ship— the  men  had  all  been  drenched  with 
rum  and  laudanum. 

This  story  is  as  instructive  as  tragic.  For 
that  ship,  won  not  by  fair  fighting,  but  a  foul 
trick,  carrying  at  her  mast  head  foreign  colors, 
with  a  new  commander  on  her  quarter-deck, 
her  ere  w  below  in  irons,  and  her  head  brought 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  127 

round,  and  bearing  away  to  the  coasts  of  the 
enemy,  presents  to  my  eye  a  picture  of  the 
fate  of  many.     By  the  same  instrumentality 
they  are  seduced— betrayed   into  the  hands 
of   the   Adversary.     By   intemperance,    also, 
they  are    "  taken  captive  of  the  devil  at  his 
will."     Had  there  been  no  intoxicating  liquors 
on  board,  had  she  sailed  under  the  temperance 
flag,  as  it  is  called,  that  ship  had  not  been  lost, 
nor  had  her  crew  pined  in  foreign  prison,  nor 
had  that  gallant  man,  who  had  otherwise  re 
turned  to  his  mother's  arms,  rich  with  prize 
money,   and   wearing  laurels   on   his    brow, 
lain  there — a  bleeding  corpse  upon  the  deck. 
There  is  no  doubt  of  that.     No  man  will  at 
tempt  to  deny  that.     And  we  appeal  to  your 
candor,  if  this  is  not  as  true,  that  thousands  of 
our  fellow-creatures  had  never  been  lost,  many 
a  poor  servant  girl  had  never  forfeited  her 
character  and  lost  her  place,  many  a  trades 
man  had  never  lost  his  employment  and  been 
reduced  to   beggary,  many  a  merchant  had 
never  lost  his  business  and  become  a  bank 
rupt,  many  a  woman  had  never  lost  her  virtue 


128  THE  CITY: 


and  wrecked  her  peace,  many  a  man  and  wo 
man  had  never  lost  both  soul  and  body,  if 
they  had  practised  habits  of  abstinence.    Drink 
has    been   their   ruin.     And  their   ruin   had 
never  been,  if,  so  to  speak,  they  had   sailed 
the  voyage  of  life  with  no  intoxicating  liquors 
on  board.     That  ruse  de  guerre  so  successfully 
played  on  the  "  high  seas,"  is  one  of  Satan's 
most    common,    every-day    services.     These 
stimulants  weaken  the  reason,  while  they  in 
flame  the  passions.     They  quicken  corruption, 
whilst  they  stupify  conscience.     And  I  believe 
—and  who  does  not?— that  but  for  the  use  of 
them,  thousands  would  never  have  taken  that 
first  step  in  sin,  which,  step  by  step,  and  step 
by  step,  has  conducted  their  feet  down  to  ruin. 
Convinced  as  I  am— and,  as  I  presume  you 
are— of  the  innate  depravity  of  human  nature, 
I  think  that  we  have  no  need  to  increase  the 
dangers  of  temptation  and  arm  it  with  addi 
tional  powers.     They  who  carry  gunpowder 
on  board  are  careful  of  fires  and  lights— nor 
careless  even  of  a  spark,  lest  that,  reaching 
the  magazine,  should  blow  the  ship  out  of  the 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  129 

water,  and  the  crew  into  eternity.  Believing 
as  I  do  in  the  weakness  of  our  nature,  I  think 
that  we  have  little  need  by  anything  to  in 
crease  our  proneness  to  fall.  The  path  of  a 
man,  even  of  a  man  on  the  highway  to  heav 
en,  is  never  one  of  perfect  safet}^,  and  is 
often  one  of  imminent  danger.  It  resembles 
those  mountain-passes  in  the  Higher  Alps, 
where  the  narrow  road,  its  broken  surface,  and 
the  dizzy  depths  below,  require  a  steady  foot 
and  the  coolest  head ;  one  false,  one  stumbling 
step,  and  you  are  gone,  over  the  rocks,  sheer 
down  a  hundred  fathoms,  where  the  angry 
torrent  foams  in  the  bottom  of  a  gloomy  gorge, 
white  as  the  snows  it  flows  from ;  or — no  hap 
pier  fate — you  are  left  lying,  mid- way  down,  on 
some  projecting  crag,  a  mangled  mass — a  ban 
quet  for  the  vultures.  Many  such  dangerous 
passes  there  are  in  the  journey  of  life.  The 
very  next  turn,  for  anything  we  know,  may 
bring  us  on  one.  Turn  that  projecting  point 
which  hides  the  path  before  you,  and  you  are 
suddenly  in  circumstances  which  demand  that 
reason  be  strong,  and  conscience  be  tender, 


130  THE  CITY: 

and  hope  be  bright,  and  faith  be  vigorous, 
and  the  prayer  be  ready  to  spring  from  our 
lips,  "  Lord,  hold  up  my  goings,  that  my  foot 
steps  slip  not." 

I  leave  this  part  of  my  subject ;  but  before 
I  leave  it,  let  me  appeal  to  the  love  and  anx 
ieties  of  Christian  parents — of  every  parent. 
If  you  believe,  as  a  foolish  mother  once  said 
to  me,  when  gently  warning  her  to  guard  her 
child,  "  There  is  no  ill,  sir,  about  my  child,"  I 
have  nothing  now  to  say,  but,  God  pity  the 
child  that  has  such  a  mother.  Hoping  better 
things  of  you,  brethren,  let  me  put  it  to  you, 
whether  you  are  not  most  likely  to  preserve 
your  children  from  many  temptations,  and  lay 
a  good  foundation  for  their  well-doing,  and 
your  own  parental  comfort,  by  training  them 
up  in  the  early  and  entire  disuse  of  what  is 
the  ruin  of  so  many  families,  the  curse  of  so 
many  homes,  and  what,  if  not  taught  to  like, 
they  have  no  craving  for.  Apply  to  this,  as 
to  other  things,  the  lesson  of  holy  Scripture, 
"  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
and  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  131 

it."  Surely,  oh  surely,  we  have  no  need, 
either  for  ourselves  or  children,  to  create 
temptations — rashly  to  court  dangers  which 
we  can  avoid.  It  is  a  hard  fight  at  the  best 
to  get  to  heaven.  We  shall  get  fighting 
enough  without  challenging  it.  We  should 
leave  vaporing  fools  to  repeat  the  bravado  of 
the  Philistine.  Let  no  man  step  out  from  the 
ranks  of  the  cross,  even  from  the  side  of 
Christ,  to  bid  defiance  to  the  devil,  saying, 
"  Give  me  a  man  to  fight  with."  Our  safety 
lies  most,  not  in  fighting  but  in  fleeing  tempta 
tion — in  ever  remembering  this  solemn  truth, 
"  The  righteous  scarcely  are  saved." 

These  views  I  press  on  no  man,  but  present 
to  the  candid  and  prayerful  consideration  of 
all.  But  if  these  views  do  not  meet  your 
favor,  nor  commend  themselves  to  your  con 
science  before  God,  if  you  think  it  best  and 
wisest  to  leave  yourselves  and  your  children, 
and  others,  exposed  to  the  terrible  temptations 
which  I  think  it  Christian  prudence  to  avoid, 
then  there  is  the  more  need  that  you  be  fully 
armed  for  the  battle.  To  save  our  country 


132  THE  CITY: 

and  our  religion,  there  is  the  more  need  that 
you  apply  a  prompt  and  effectual  remedy  to 
other  two  great  evils,  to  which,  as  belonging 
to  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  the  city,  I  now  re 
quest  your  attention. 

III.  Ignorance,  or  want  of  education. 

First,  Let  us  look  at  this  evil  as  it  exists  among 
the  lowest  classes. 

Our  blessed  Lord  was  born  in  a  stable. 
And  the  stable  which  marked  the  beginning, 
like  the  cross  which  stood  at  the  end  of  his 
life,  has  been  always  regarded  as  a  prominent 
feature  of  his  humiliation.  Yet  I  have  seen 
some  who  were  born  in  even  more  humiliat 
ing  circumstances.  Many  years  ago — for  the 
subject  is  not  new  to  us — we  were  attempting 
to  sound  the  depths  of  city-sins  and  city-sor 
rows.  When  engaged  in  this  pursuit,  we 
visited  the  police-office  at  dead  of  night.  It 
was  a  chamber  of  horrors.  There,  lost,  guilty, 
degraded  humanity  was  represented  by  a 
wretched  object  dying  beside  the  fire,  in  the 
last  stages  of  consumption — the  sister  of  a  min- 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  133 

ister  of  the  gospel.    She  had  led  a  life  of  the  low 
est  infamy,  and,  a  houseless  outcast,  was  drain 
ing  off  there  the  dregs  of  a  bitter  cup.     But  if 
that  and  many  other  cases  filled  us  with  hor 
ror,  some  moved  our  pity ;   none  more  than 
two  sleeping  infants,  the  twin  offspring  of  a 
poor  wandering  creature  who  had  given  birth 
to  them  the  day  before  within  the  walls  of 
that  police-office.     What  a  fate  was  theirs! 
What  an  ominous  beginning!      What  a  life 
of  hardship,  cruelty,  sin,  and  misery  lay  be 
fore  these  two  unconscious  innocents!     The 
shadow  of  their  birth-place  was  thrown  black 
and  forward  on  their  future  destiny.     It  need 
ed  no  seer  to  stand  by  that  rude  crib  and  tell 
their  fortune.     They  had  hardly  a  chance  in 
life.      They  had  heaven  in  death;  and  no 
where  had  death  looked  less  grim  than  in  that 
grim  birth-chamber,  had  he  come  and  plucked 
these  two  buds  from  the  parent-tree,  that  they 
might  blow  in  heaven  on  Jesus'  breast. 

These  infants  were  types  of  a  class,  with 
which,  although  somewhat  better  born,  yet  in 
no  way  better  bred,  our  large  citiea.  swarm 


OSP 


134  THE  CITY: 

People— people  who  find  it  difficult  enough, 
with  all  the  appliances  of  a  good  education 
and  religious  training,  to  keep  their  children 
in  the  paths  of  honesty  and  rectitude— won 
der  that  there  is  so  much  crime.     If  they  saw 
what  some  of  us  have  seen,  and  knew  what 
some  of  us  have  known,  they  would  still  won 
der,  but  wonder  there  was  so  little  crime, 
expect  from  those  who  have  been  reared  in 
the  darkest  ignorance,  and  in  a  very  hot-bed 
of  temptations,   anything  else   but   crime,   is 
sheer  folly.     A  man  migU  as  well  wonder 
that  he  does  not  see  wheat  or  barley  growing 
in  our  streets— where  plough  never  goes,  and 
no  seed  is  sown.     What  can  a  farmer  expect 
to  find  in  a  field  left  fallow,  abandoned  to 
nature,  to  the  floating  thistle-down  and  every 
seed  furnished  with  wings  to  fly,  but  evidence 
of  his  own  neglect  in  a   rank,  vile  crop  of 

weeds  ? 

Look  at  the  case  of  a  boy  whom  I  saw  lately. 
He  was  but  twelve  years  of  age,  and  had  been 
seven  times  in  jail.  The  term  of  his  imprison 
ment  was  run  out,  and  so  he  had  doffed  the 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  135 

prison  garb  and  resumed  his  own.  It  was  the 
depth  of  winter;  and  having  neither  shoes  nor 
stockings,  his  red,  naked  feet  were  upon  the 
frozen  ground.  Had  you  seen  him  shivering 
in  his  scanty  dress — the  misery  pictured  on  an 
otherwise  comely  face — the  tears  that  went 
dropping  over  his  cheeks  as  the  child  told  his 
pitiful  story — you  would  have  forgotten  that 
he  had  been  a  thief,  and  only  seen  before  you 
an  unhappy  creature  more  worthy  of  a  kind 
word,  a  loving  look,  a  helping  hand,  than  the 
guardianship  of  a  turnkey  and  the  dreary  soli 
tude  of  a  jail. 

His  mother  was  in  the  grave.  His  father 
had  married  another  woman.  They  both  were 
drunkards.  Their  den,  which  is  in  the  High 
Street — I  know  the  place — contained  one 
bed,  reserved  for  the  father,  his  wife,  and  her 
child.  No  couch  was  kindly  spread  for  this 
poor  child,  and  his  brother,  a  mother's  son — 
then  also  immured  in  the  jail.  When  they 
were  fortunate  enough  to  be  allowed  to  lie  at 
home,  their  only  bed  was  the  hard  bare  floor. 
I  say  fortunate  enough,  because  on  many  a 


136  THE  CITY: 

winter  night  their  own  father  hounded  them 
out.  Kufnan  that  he  was,  he  drove  his  in 
fants  weeping  from  the  door,  to  break  their 
young  hearts  and  bewail  their  cruel  lot  in  the 
corner  of  some  filthy  stair;  and  sleep  away  the 
cold  dark  hours  as  best  they  could — crouching 
together  for  warmth,  like  two  houseless  dogs. 
A  friend  listened  with  me  to  that  cruel  tale ; 
and  when  he  saw  the  woe,  the  utter  woe  in 
that  child's  face,  the  trembling  of  his  lip,  the 
great  big  tears  that  came  rolling  from  his  eyes, 
and  fell  on  one's  heart  like  red-hot  drops  of 
iron,  no  wonder  that  he  declared,  with  indig 
nation  flashing  in  his  eyes,  "  They  have  not  a 
chance,  sir,  they  have  not  a  chance."  In  cir 
cumstances  as  hopeless,  how  many  are  here — 
in  every  large  city  of  this  kingdom ! 

Yonder  castaway,  who  has  seen  the  ship  go 
down,  with  all  her  shrieking  crew,  and,  float 
ing  away  upon  his  raft,  has  been  borne  along 
by  sea  currents  over  a  shoreless  ocean,  has  got 
a  chance.  These  weeds,  that  are  swung  by 
the  waves  and  give  verdure  to  the  deep,  these 
sea- shore  birds,  on  which  his  lank  and  hungry 


ITS   SINS  AND   SORROWS. 

dog  stands  ready  to  spring,  indicate  the  neigh 
borhood  of  land ;  and  we  almost  seem  to  see 
it  looming  through  the  fog-bank,  on  which  his 
eye,  kindling  with  hope,  and  shaded  by  his 
hand  from  the  glare  of  the  sun,  is  fixed,  as  he 
bends  forward  with  such  intent  and  eager  gaze  1 
But  to  the  castaway  of  the  land,  however, 
"  hope  is  none."     None,  unless  God  in  heaven 
pity  him,  and  fill  our  hearts  with  one  wave 
from  the  ocean  of  his  infinite  love.     By  the 
depraved  habits  of  their  parents,  by  the  dan 
gerous  associations  of  the  street,  by  their  cold 
and  nakedness,  their  hunger  and  houselessriess, 
and  most  of  all,  I  think,  by  the  very  hostility 
bred  within  them  against  a  community  that 
has  only  added  punishment  to  neglect,   and 
"  persecuted  them  whom   God  had  smitten," 
they  are  impelled  on  evil.     We  do  nothing  to 
instruct  them.     We  leave   them  exposed   to 
temptations,  before  which  the  best  of  us  would 
go  down.     Thus  we   first  condemn   them  to 
crime,  and  then  condemn  them  to  punishment 
And   where  is  the  justice  of  that?     I  have 
often  felt,  that  hsd  society  meted  out  to  me 
12* 


138  THE  CITY: 

•the  measure  which  she  had  meted  out  to 
them,  I  would  have  hated  her,  and  sought 
vengeance  for  my  cruel  wrongs — unless  this 
nature  had  been  changed  and  mellowed  and 
tempered  by  the  grace  of  God.  Thanks  be 
to  God,  the  eyes  of  the  nation — long,  too  long 
sealed — are  now  opening  to  its  duty.  We 
hail  the  dawn  of  a  better  day.  The  time  is 
coming,  God  speed  it  on !  when,  as  they  read 
how  thousands  of  children,  whom  we  left  to 
grow  up  in  ignorance  and  sin,  were  thrown 
into  jail,  were  punished  for  crimes  which  their 
parents  trained  and  their  circumstances  forced 
them  to — were  shut  up,  mere  boys  and  girls, 
for  weary  months  of  solitude,  within  the  four 
walls  of  a  cell  which  they  left  stamped  with 
infamy,  and  doomed  to  ruin — a  succeeding 
generation  will  read  the  story  of  our  inhu 
manity  and  injustice  with  feelings  of  aston 
ishment  and  indignation.  There  is  gross 
injustice  in  all  this.  "We  visit  the  iniquity 
of  the  fathers  upon  the  children.-  We  punish 
the  innocent  and  let  the  guilty  go  free.  And 
our  treatment  of  these  poor  suffering  creatures 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  139 

is  calculated  to  excite  feelings  in  every  just 
and  generous  mind,  if  not  as  intense,  yet  akin 
to  the  horror  with  which  we  read,  how  in  the 
days  of  George  II.  they  brought  out  two  in 
fants,  a  boy  of  twelve  and  a  girl  of  eleven 
years  old,  and  strung  them  up  on  the  same 
gallows  before  the  face  of  an  amazed  and 
angry  heaven. 

Meanwhile,  there  are  thousands,  and  tens  of 
thousands,  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  of  the 
children  of  this  land,  who  are  growing  up 
strangers  to  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  edu 
cation.  Ignorance  is  their  sole  inheritance. 
And  in  regard  to  them,  I  may  put  into  the 
mouth  of  our  country  the  very  complaint 
which  the  prophet  puts  into  the  mouth  of  God, 
"My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowl 
edge."  They  are  punished  for  it,  impover 
ished  for  it,  imprisoned  for  it,  banished  for  it, 
and  hanged  for  it.  The  "voice  heard  in 
Ramah,  lamentation  and  bitter  weeping/'  falls 
upon  our  ear.  Rachel  is  weeping  for  her 
children.  Victims  of  parental  cruelty,  I  call 
on  humanity  to  bless  them  with  the  protection 


140  THE  CITY: 

which  she  extends  in  this  country  to  the  lower 
animals.  Subjects  in  time  past  only  of  pun 
ishment,  I  next  call  on  justice  to  sheathe  the 
sword,  and  lift  up  her  shield,  .and  throw  it 
over  the  heads  of  these  unhappy  children. 
And  next  I  call  on  religion  to  leave  her  tern- 
pies,  and,  like  a  mother  seeking  a  lost  child, 
to  go  forth  to  the  streets,  and  gather  in  these 
infants  for  Jesus'  arms — save  these  gems  for 
a  Saviour's  crown. 

Second,  Let  us  look  at  this  evil  as  it  exists 
among  the  working  classes. 

The  want  of  education  is  not  confined  to 
the  lowest  of  the  people.  Many  of  the  chil 
dren  of  our  working  classes  begin  the  business 
of  life  before  they  have  finished  that  of  edu 
cation,  and  not  a  few  of  them  even  before  they 
have  begun  it.  The  condition  of  our  labor 
market  lies  as  a  heavy  curse  upon  the  nation. 
It  is  an  evil  poorly  compensated  by  the 
growth  of  wealth,  and  that  more  general  dif 
fusion  of  the  comforts  of  life  in  which  we 
otherwise  heartily  rejoice.  Unfortunately,  in 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  141 

fant  labor  is  remunerating  no\v-a-days  in  the 
way  of  work,  as  it  used  to  -be  in  the  way  of 
mendicancy.  In  consequence  of  this,  God's 
providence  and  man's  plans  are  in  collision — 
in  direct  collision.  Heaven  and  earth  are  at 
war.  The  roar  of  machinery  deafens  the  ear 
of  tender  childhood.  The  boy  grows  pale 
upon  the  loom,  and  the  girl  grows  stunted  by 
the  whirling  wheels,  who  should  be  drinking 
in  knowledge  at  its  fountains,  or  rushing  from 
school  to  play  with  the  lambs  upon  the  flow 
ery  sward,  or  chasing  the  butterfly  by  the 
laughing  stream,  or  gathering  health  and 
strength,  beauty  and  symmetry  where  the  bee 
collects  her  honied  stores,  for  working  days 
and  winter-time.  The  click  of  shuttles  and 
deafening  noise  of  the  manufactory  are  in  ears 
that  should  be  filled  with  no  sound  but  the 
shouts  and  laughter  of  play,  the  melody  of 
singing  birds,  or  the  hum  of  the  busy  school. 
The  harmony  of  nature  is  disturbed,  and 
the  effects  of  that  disturbance  on  the  physical, 
moral,  and  religions  condition  of  our  people 
are  lamentable — and  threaten  to  be  more  so. 


THE  CITY: 


Children  are  able  to  support  before  they  have 
sense  to  guide  themselves.     Before  God  has 
fitted  os  ever  intended  them  to  be  so,  they  are 
independent  of  parental  control.     Hence  do 
mestic    discord,   hence    household    rebellion, 
hence  the  defiance  of  parental  authority.     Too 
early  removed  from  school,  hence  the  spread 
of  ignorance.      Thrown  in  their  very  child 
hood  into  the  company   of  hoary  sin,  hence 
their  morals  are  corrupted.    They  are  initiated 
into  the  mysteries  of  vice  before  they  have 
the  power  to  practise  it.     Without  a  parent's 
hand  to  guide  the  reins,  before  reason   and 
principle  have  had  time  to  assume  their  legit 
imate  authority,  the  passions  get  it  all  their 
own  headlong   way.     And  in   the  fate  of  a 
carriage  which  has  none  to  drive,  but  strong 
wild  horses  to  drag  it  on;  or,  in  the  fate  of  a 
bark  which,  having  broken  loose  from  her 
moorings,  catches  the  gust  in  her  wide-spread 
sail,  ere  helm  is  hung  or  helmsman  stands  by 
the  wheel—  in  that  inevitable  crash,  in   that 
shattered  wreck—  are  symbolized  the  fate  of 
many.     Born  in  our  great  centres  of  manu- 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  143 

facture,  sent  to  work  when  they  should  be  sent 
to  school  or  continued  at  it,  and  earning  wages 
sufficient  to  maintain  themselves  before  reason 
is  developed  and  principles  are  confirmed, 
they  laugh  at  parental  control,  and  in  seeking 
to  be  their  own  masters  become  the  slaves  of 
their  own  master  passions. 

This  is  neither  time  nor  place  to  show  the 
extent  of  this  evil,  unless  to  say  that,  while 
the  most  extraordinary  errors  may  lurk  under 
general  statistics,  the  public  judging  by  them 
alone,  may  cherish  the  delusion  that  all  is 
right  when  much  is  wrong.  The  actual  truth 
may  be  best  arrived  at  by  selecting  some  par 
ticular  locality,  and  subjecting  it  to  a  close 
and  searching  examination.  We  have  done 
so  in  the  Pleasance — a  district  of  the  city 
where  we  are  about  to  build  a  church,  and 
where,  through  our  missionary  and  his  allies, 
we  have  labored  for  four  years  with  such  re 
markable  success.  There  are  worse,  far  worse 
districts  than  that  in  this  city.  There  are 
many  much  worse  in  every  large  city  in  the 
kingdom.  Yet  there,  in  an  area  containing 


144  THE  CITY: 

two  thousand  of  a  population,  we  found,  when 
we  entered  on  our  labors,  no  fewer  than  two 
hundred  children  growing  up  without  educa 
tion — who  should  have  been  at  school,  and 
were  not.  They  were  not  without  schools,  yet 
with  these  in  the  neighborhood  they  were 
without  schooling.  They  had  teachers  within 
reach  of  them  yet  they  were  not  taught.  Now 
this  is  a  very  instructive  fact.  The  plain  and 
very  important  inference  to  be  deduced  from 
that  fact  is  this,  that  while  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  state  to  provide  the  means  of  education, 
it  is  no  less  her  duty  to  see  that  they  are  used. 
In  the  United  States  of  America — a  country 
where,  perhaps,  more  than  in  any  other,  the 
value  of  education  is  thoroughly  understood 
— the  means  of  educating  all  the  people  are 
amply  and  in  many  instances  freely  provided. 
Yet  by  one  of  their  last  reports,  complaints 
appear  to  come  from  every  part  of  the  country, 
that  many  parents  neglect  to  send  their  chil 
dren  to  school.  This  evil  has  begun  to  grow 
in  America,  which  in  our  own  land  has  reach 
ed  so  gigantic  a  size.  Years  of  experience 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  145 

-and  observation,  which  were  spent  among  the 
lower  and  lowest  classes  of  the  people,  have 
produced  in  my  mind  the  rooted  conviction 
that,  although  public  or  private  benevolence 
may  plant  schools  in  our  streets,  thick  as  trees 
in  the  forest,  the  evil  never  will  be  cured. 
From  many  a  dark  locality  the  city  will  con 
tinue  to  cry,  "My  people  are  destroyed  for 
lack  of  knowledge,"  unless  the  state  insist  on 
this,  that  every  child  who  should  be,  shall  be 
at  school. 

From  a  system  of  trade  which  offers  up  our 
children  in  sacrifice  to  the  Moloch  of  money, 
and  builds  fortunes  in  many  instances  on  the 
ruins  of  public  morality  and  domestic  happi 
ness — from  the  cupidity  of  some  parents,  and 
the  culpable  negligence  of  others  —  helpless 
childhood  implores  our  protection.  We  laugh 
at  the  Turk  who  builds  hospitals  for  dogs, 
but  leaves  his  fellow-creatures  to  die  uncured 
and  uncared  for.  And  we  forget  that  dogs 
and  horses  enjoy,  by  Act  of  Parliament,  a 
protection  from  cruelty  among  ourselves, 
which  is  denied  to  those  whose  bodies  and 
18 


146  THE  CITY: 

whose  souls  we  leave  savage  parents  to  neg 
lect  and  starve,     I  lay  it  down  as  a  principle, 
which  cannot  be  controverted,  and  which  lies, 
indeed,  at  the  very  foundations  of  society,  that 
no  man  shall  be  allowed  lo  rear  bis  family,  a 
burden,  and  a  nuisance,  and  a  danger  to  the 
community.     He  has  no  more  right  to  rear 
wild  men  and  wild  women,  and  let  them  loose 
among  us;  than  to  rear  tigers  and  wolves  and 
send  them  abroad  on  our  streets.    What  four- 
footed  animal  is  so  dangerous  to  the  communi 
ty,  as  that  animal  which  unites  the  uncultivated 
intellect  of  a  man  to  the  uncontrollable  pas 
sions  of  a  beast  ? 

"We  have  a  right  to  insist  that  this  shall  not 
be.  Some  rights  I  may  waive.  I  may  waive 
my  right  to  a  fortune.  I  may  waive  my  right 
to  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  my  office. 
I  may  abandon  my  claim  to  a  competent  liv 
ing  from  those  to  whom  I  minister,  and  turn 
tent-maker  like  the  great  apostle.  But  if  I 
have  a  right  to  interfere  for  the  good  of  others, 
to  shield  the  oppressed,  to  save  the  perishing, 
to  instruct  the  ignorant— by  any  act  on  my 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  147 

part  to  benefit  and  bless  my  country— that  is 
a  right  which  I  have  no  right  to  waive.     God 
requires  me  to  claim  it  and  carry  it  into  effect. 
Beligion  thus  lends  her  holy  sanction  to  the 
state,  when  she  insists  on  a  universal  educa 
tion.      She  commands  society  to   take  these 
children  under  its  protection,  and  see  to  it, 
that  all  of  them  are  trained  through  means  of 
the  school  to  be  of  service  to  the  state.     The 
parent   who   does   not   educate   his   children, 
should  be  regarded  as  a  man  who  is  not  using 
his  liberty,    but  is  guilty   of  licentiousness! 
When  will  men  cease  to  confound  the  two, 
and  cease  by  applying  the  name  of  liberty  to 
that  which  outrages  the  rights  and  destroys 
the  liberties  of  others,  to  remind  us  of  the  say 
ing  of  the  celebrated  woman  who,  when  they 
were  carting  her  to  the  guillotine,  as  the  tum 
bril  passed  a  statue  that  had  been  erected  to 
Liberty  rose  to  exclaim:— "0  Liberty,  what 
crimes  have  been  committed  in  thy  name!" 

To  ally  that  sacred  name  to  the  culpable 
and  cruel  neglect  of  parents  who  neither  do 
their  duty  to  their  children  nor  to  the  state,  is 


148  THE  CITY: 

to  help  the  cause  of  despotism,  and  make  the 
name  of  liberty  "  stink  in  the  nostrils"  of  the 
people.  Let  our  country  apply  a  prompt 
remedy  to  this  evil,  and  upon  the  land  which, 
with  judgment  to  distinguish  between  liberty 
and  licentiousness,  and  humanity  to  espouse 
the  cause  of  the  wronged,  spread  her  mother 
wings  over  the  least  of  these  little  ones,  we 
may  expect  the  blessing  of  Him  who  folded 
infants  in  the  arms  that  sustain  the  world,  and 
said,  "Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me, 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

IY.  The  extent  of  irreligion  in  our  large 
cities. 

Much  irreligion  may  be  found  among  relig 
ious  professors.  To  use  a  common  saying,  all 
is  not  gold  that  glitters.  And  there  needs  no 
other  evidence  of  the  fact,  that  irreligion  does 
exist  among  religious  professors,  than  the 
cold,  callous,  heartless  indifference  with  which 
many  hear  of  the  sins  and  look  upon  the  sor 
rows  of  their  fellow-creatures.  They  could 
not  do  so  if  they  were  baptized  into  the  nature 


ITS  SINS  AND   SORROWS.  149 

as  well  as  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.     In  some 
cases  the  loss  of  a  cattle-beast  will  affect  the 
farmer,  the  loss  of  a  few  pounds  on  some  spec 
ulation  will  distress  the  merchant,  the  loss  of 
her  raven  locks,  and  the  rose  upon  her  cheek, 
and  the  fading  charm^that  won  admiration, 
will  grieve  the  woman,  more  than  the  loss  of 
immortal  souls.     Alas,  the  best  of  us  have 
cause  to  pray  for  a  deeper  baptism   in   the 
spirit  of  Him,  who,  beholdiog  the  city,  wept 
over  it!    Blessed  Jesus!  blessed  Saviour,  and 
blessed  pattern !  how  didst  thou  leave  the  de 
lights  of  heaven  and  thy  Father's  bosom,  on  a 
mission  of  most  generous  mercy  !     Thy  love 
grudged   no   labor!      Thine   eye  refused  no 
pity !      Thy  ear  was  never  shut  against  the 
story  of  distress !    Thy  hand  was  always  ready 
to  relieve  the  sufferer !     From  thy  cradle  to 
thy  grave,  thy  whole  life  was  passed  in  daily 
acts  of  loftiest  self-denial,  and,  with  the  blood 
trickling  down  thy  brows,  and  the  heavy  cross 
on  thy  lacerated  back,  upon  thy  way  to  Cal 
vary,  to  save  the  vilest  wretches  and  the  chief 
of  sinners,  how  dost  thou  t'irn  round  on  us  to 
13* 


150  THE  CITY: 

say,  "If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him 
deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and 
follow  me !  For  whosoever  will  save  his  life, 
shall  lose  it,  and  whosoever  will  lose  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  For  what  is  a  man 
profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and 
lose  his  own  soul  ?  or,  what  shall  a  man  give 
in  exchange  for  his  soul?  For  the  Son  of 
man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father, 
with  his  angels,  and  then  he  shall  reward 
every  man  according  to  his  works." 

The  best  of  us  have  come  far  short,  no 
doubt,  of  thus  following  Christ.  Defects  are 
many  and  great — leaving  us  no  hope  of  salva 
tion,  but  in  the  mercy  of  the  Father,  and  the 
merits  of  the  Son.  Nor  do  we  deny  that 
there  is  a  numerous  class  who  follow  the 
banner  of  the  cross,  but  are,  so  to  speak, 
mere  camp  followers— never  fighting  in  the 
front  of  battle,  nor  found,  but  on  a  day  of 
parade,  among  the  ranks  of  the  fighting  men. 
They  are  professors  of  religion,  because  it  is 
reputable  and  respectable  to  be  so  ;  because  it 
keeps  qu;et  an  otherwise  uneasy  conscience; 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  151 

because  it  helps  them  on  in  the  world.  They 
hold  some  such  place  in  the  Christian,  as  was 
occupied  in  the  Jewish  host,  by  the  mixed 
multitude  which,  although  not  of  Israel,  fol 
lowed  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  But  if  that  be 
certain,  no  less  certain  is  this,  that  while  in 
some  cases  there  is  a  profession  of  religion 
without  its  reality,  there  is  in  no  case  the 
reality  of  religion  without  its  profession. 
There  may  be  leaves  and  blossoms  also  on  a 
tree  which  bears  no  fruit,  but  without  leaves 
and  blossoms  there  can  be  none.  The  tree 
which,  in  high  mid-summer,  when  skies  are 
warm,  and  birds  are  singing,  and  flowers  are 
blooming,  and  woods  are  green,  stands  there  a 
skeleton  form  with  its  naked  branches,  has 
no  life  in  it.  It  must  be  a  cumberer  of  the 
ground. 

Now,  bearing  this  in  mind,  what  an  appal 
ling  picture  of  irreligion  do  our  large  towns 
present !  Many  years  ago  it  was  alleged  that 
in  our  own  city,  containing  a  population  of 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
souls,  there  were  not  fewer  than  forty  thou- 


152  THE  CITY: 

sand  who  bad  sunk  into  practical  heathenism. 
They  kept  no  Sabbath,  they  entered  no  house 
of  God;  bells  might  have  been  mute,  pulpits 
silent,  and  churches  shut  for  them.     So  far  as 
they  cared,  or  were  concerned,  the  cross,  with 
its  blessed  burden,  might  never  have  stood  on 
Calvary.     Just  think  of  us,  sitting  at  ease  in 
Zion,  with  forty  thousand  neighbors  perishing 
at  our  door — but  one  here,  and  another  there, 
caring  for  their   souls!     Those  who   alleged 
this,  those  who  had  gone  below  to  sound  the 
well,  and  came  up  to  report  how  the  water 
was  rising,   were   treated  as   alarmists.     The 
sky  was  clear,  the  sea  was  calm,  the  ship  was 
but  slowly  sinking,  and  so — all  fears  laughed 
away — the  merry  music  struck  up  again,  and 
the  dance  went  on  upon  the  deck.     But  since 
that  period,  another  party  has  stept  in — one 
not  suspected  of  fanaticism  or  a  sectarian  spirit. 
The  Government  instituted  a  census,  and  its 
results  have  established  the  ability,  and  vindi 
cated  the  integrity  of  those  who  were  the  first 
to  sound  the  alarm.     It  is  now  proved,  that 
not  here  only,  where  between  forty  and  fifty 


ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS.  153 

thousand  go  to  no  church — not  in  Glasgow 
only,  where  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  go 
to  no  church — not  in  London  only,  where 
more  than  ten  hundred  thousand  go  to  no 
church  ;  but  that  in  all  our  large  towns  there 
are  to  be  found  immense,  formidable,  and 
growing  masses  over  whom  religion  has  no 
hold — who  have  parted  from  their  anchors, 
and  broken  loose  from  all  religious  profession. 
Nor  is  that  all.  The  plague  has  extended 
from  the  towns  to  the  country.  Many  rural 
districts,  which,  some  years  ago,  were  the 
homes  of  a  devout  and  decent  peasantry,  are 
now  filled  with  a  mining  or  manufacturing 
population,  who  know  no  Sabbath,  read  no 
Bible,  and  care  neither  for  Grod  nor  man. 

But  instead  of  roaming  over  either  the 
whole  town  or  country,  look  again  at  that 
district  of  this  city  which  we  have  begun  to 
cultivate.  In  what  state  did  we  find  its  peo 
ple,  so  far  as  attendance  on  divine  worship 
was  concerned?  Well,  upon  entering  on 
our  work  in  the  Pleasance — certainly,  as  1 
have  already  said,  not  the  worst  district  of 


154  THE  CITY: 

the  town — we  found  more  than  one-third  of  its 
two  thousand  inhabitants,  more  than  six  hun 
dred  of  the  whole  two  thousand  people,  pass 
ing  on  to  the  grave  as  careless  of  their  souls  as 
if  they  had  none  to  care  for — living  without 
the  profession  of  religion — living  without  God 
or  hope  in  the  world — living,  to  all  practical 
intents  and  purposes,  heathens  in  a  Christian 
land. 

We,  like  other  congregations  of  our  own 
church  and  of  other  churches  which  have 
labored  in  the  same  work,  have  had  already 
fruit  of  our  labors.  Let  all  other  congrega 
tions,  to  whatever  denomination  of  Christians 
they  may  belong,  engage  in  a  similar  enter 
prise.  Let  each  select  their  own  manageable 
Held  of  Christian  work.  Let  us  thus  embrace 
the  whole  city,  and  cover  its  nakedness — 
although  like  Joseph,  it  should  be  robed  in  a 
coat  of  many  colors.  Let  our  only  rivalry  be 
the  holy  one  of  who  shall  do  most  and  succeed 
best  in  converting  the  wilderness  into  an  Eden, 
and  causing  these  deserts  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 
Like  those  allies  on  Crimean  fields  who  forgot 


ITS   SINS   AND   SORROWS.  155 

their  old  quarrels,  and  buried  the  recollections 
of  the  past  in  oblivion,  let  us  all  sit  down  to 
gether  before  this  great  fortress.  They  co 
operated  for  the  common  good.  Rebuking 
our  wretched  jealousies,  and  presenting  us 
with  a  heroic,  I  had  almost  said  a  holy  ex 
ample  of  generous  sympathy  and  indomitable 
energy,  in  the  teeth  of  frost,  and  famine,  and 
pestilence,  and  war,  they  clung  to  the  rocks 
of  that  stormy  shore.  With  mutual  under 
standing  and  arrangements,  they  threw  up 
their  batteries,  they  pressed  on  their  lines,  they 
manned  the  trenches,  they  rushed  to  the  as 
sault — mingling  the  shouts  of  different  nations 
in  the  same  gallant  charge,  and  the  blood  of 
different  races  in  the  same  battle-field.  And 
if  nations,  once  hostile,  there  fought  and  fell 
together,  there  bled  and  died  together,  why 
should  not  different  churches  come  to  as  com 
mon  and  cordial  an  understanding  If  we 
make  a  united,  I  believe,  with  God's  blessing, 
we  shall  make  an  irresistible  assault  upon 
these  four  formidable  strongholds  of  Sin  and 
Satan. 


156  THE  CITY: 

Let  what  we  have  done  on  a  small  scale  in 
our  selected  district  be  done  on  a  large  one. 
We  have  brought  the  uneducated  within  the 
doors  of  the   school.     We  have  built  up   a 
Christian  congregation  out  of  a  mass  of  ruins. 
We  have   gathered  into  the  house  of  God 
many  who  were  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd. 
We  have  done  this  by  a  devoted  missionary 
—aided  by  Christian   men  and  women  who 
threw  their  energies  into  the  work,  and  spent 
no   small  portion  of  their  time   among  the 
dwellings  of  the  people  in  household  visita 
tions.     Let  that  which  we  have  done  on    a 
small  scale  be  done  on  a  large  one,  and  the 
lowest  population  of  our  cities  may  yet  be 
raised,    and  the   worst  districts   evangelized. 
This  were  done   if   every   Christian    family 
would  select  but  one  lost  family  as  the  ob 
ject  of  their  care,  saying,  Be  that  our  work. 
It  were  done,  if  every  convert  would  seek  to 
make  conversions;  done,  if  every  man  who 
had  himself  reached  the  rock,  would  stretch 
out  his  hand  to  pull  others  up.     The  work 
before  us— the  work  of  raising  and  Christian- 


ITS  SINS  AND  SOEHOWS.  157 

izing  our  masses — would  be  found,  I  believe, 
to  be  perfectly  practicable,  were  it  attempted 
in  a  systematic  way,  and  on  some  such  plan 
as  this.  Let  the  ministers  or  representatives 
of  the  different  denominations  within  the  city 
—Episcopalian,  Baptist,  and  Independent, 
United  Presbyterian,  Free  Church,  and  Estab 
lished  Church — meet,  and  form  themselves 
into  a  real  working  Evangelical  Alliance. 
Agreeing  to  regard  all  old  divisions  of  parishes 
with  an  ecclesiastical  right  over  their  inhabit 
ants  as  now-a-days  a  nullity,  and  so  far  as 
these  are  preventing  Christian  co-operation, 
and  the  salvation  of  the  people,  as  worse  than 
a  nullity,  let  them  map  out  the  dark  and  desti 
tute  districts  of  the  city — assigning  a  district 
to  each  congregation.  Let  every  congregation 
then  go  to  work  upon  their  own  part  of  the 
field,  and  giving  each  some  500  souls  to  care 
for,  you  would  thus  cover  "the  nakedness  of 
the  land."  You  would  everywhere  bring  life 
into  close  contact  with  death,  and  cover  the 
whole  as  the  prophet  with  his  own  body  did 
the  dead  body  of  the  child.  Every  church- 
14 


158  THE  CITY: 

going  family  would  have  to  charge  itself  with 
the  care  of  one  single  family,  with  seeing  that 
the  children  of  that  careless,  godless  household 
were  got  to  school,  and  its  members  were 
brought  out  on  the  Lord's  day  to  the  church 
of  the  district,  or  their  own  place  of  worship, 
with  visiting  them  in  their  sickness,  and  help 
ing  them  over  their  difficulties,  and  by  all 
Christian  kindness  promoting  both  their  tem 
poral  and  eternal  interests.  In  this  way  the 
work  were  not  only  practicable,  but  amid  all 
its  difficulties  comparatively  easy.  It  would 
prove  a  blessing  to  the  families  visiting  as 
well  as  to  the  families  visited.  And  I  am 
confident  that  it  would  bring  clown  the  bless 
ing  of  God  on  itself,  and  on  our  country — in 
a  few  years  presenting  a  result  which  would 
astonish  earth  and  gladden  heaven. 

I  have  no  hope  of  accomplishing  this  object 
if  the  churches  are  to  be  laced  up  by  their  old 
rules,  and  people  are  to  leave  everything  to 
ministers  and  missionaries.  Why  should  not 
he  that  heareth,  as  well  as  he  that  preacheth, 
say,  Come?  Why  should  not  they  that  .are 


ITS  SINS  .AND  SORROWS.  159 

preached  to,  preach  ?  Our  Lord  gave  to  the 
disciples.  Yes ;  but  they  gave  to  the  people. 
And  why  should  not  some  who  now,  on  Sab 
bath-days,  enjoy  two  services  in  the  house  of 
God,  content  themselves  with  one,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  other  go  forth  to  give  what  they 
have  got?  The  bread  would  multiply  in 
their  hands.  People  may  tell  me  they  are  not 
learned — I  reply,  that  to  tell  these  poor  sin 
ners  of  Jesus,  whether  beneath  the  roof  of  a 
house  or  the  open  roof  of  heaven,  needs  no 
learning.  They  need  nothing  but  the  love  of 
Christ,  zeal  for  souls,  and  the  use  of  their 
mother  tongue.  Possessed  of  no  qualifications 
but  these ;  endowed  with  the  Spirit,  and  or 
dained  of  Heaven,  see  what  the  first  Christians 
did  !  They  conquered  the  world  !  See  what 
the  first  Methodists  did !  They  changed  the 
face  of  England.  See  what  the  church  in 
Hamburgh  did !  Twenty  years  ago,  five 
Christian  men  met  there  in  a  cobbler's  shop. 
They  also,  when  they  beheld  the  city,  wept  over 
it.  They  resolved  to  form  themselves  into  a 
church — a  missionary  church,  with  Hamburgh 


160  THE  CITY: 

and  its  environs  for  the  field  of  their  labors. 
What  their  particular  creed  was,  to  what  de 
nomination  of  Protestants  they  belonged,  I 
am  not  careful  to  inquire.  High  above  the 
regimental  colors  of  that  little  band  floated 
the  royal  banner  of  the  Cross.  They  fought 
for  the  crown  of  Jesus.  They  toiled,  they 
watched,  they  labored  for  the  salvation  of 
souls.  One  article  of  their  creed,  one  term  of 
their  communion,  was  this :  —  That  every 
member  of  that  Christian  church  should  be  a 
working  Christian.  So,  in  the  afternoons  and 
evenings  of  the  Lord's  day,  they  went  forth 
to  work,  to  gather  in  the  loiterers  by  the 
highways  and  the  hedges.  Every  member 
they  gained  was  more  than  an  accession  to 
their  numbers — he  was  an  accession  to  their 
power.  And  with  what  results  were  their  la 
bors  attended?  These  should  encourage  all 
other  congregations  and  churches  "to  go  and 
do  likewise."  That  handful  of  corn  is  now 
waving  in  the  golden  harvests  of  many  fields. 
That  acorn  is  now  shot  up  into  a  mighty  oak 
that  nestles  the  birds  of  heaven  and  braves 


ITS  SINS   AND  SORROWS.  161 

the  tempest,  and  throws  a  broad  shadow  on 
the  ground.  The  church  which  was  at  first 
constituted  of  these  five  men,  who  met  in  an 
obscure  and  humble  shop,  has,  in  the  course 
of  twenty  years,  been  blessed  of  God  to  con 
vert  many  thousand  souls,  and  bring  some 
fifty  thousand  people  under  the  regular  min 
istrations  of  the  gospel. 

See  what  the  Lord  has  wrought !  In  that 
experiment  and  its  sublime  results,  in  the  rich 
effusion  of  the  Spirit  on  the  labors  of  these 
humble  men  and  women — every  one  working 
in  their  own  sphere,  but  all  at  work — who 
does  not  hear  the  voice  of  Providence  saying, 
as  it  mingles  with  the  songs  of  rejoicing  an 
gels,  "  Go  and  do  likewise."  And  should  any 
one  come  to  me  with  the  news  that  such  and 
such  an  office-bearer,  or  member  of  this  con 
gregation,  was  preaching  in  our  streets,  I 
would  reply  with  Moses  :  A  young  man  came 
running  to  say,  "  Eldad  and  Medad  do  proph 
esy  in  the  camp,"  and  Joshua,  jealous  for  his 
master's  honor,  interposed,  saying,  "My  lord 
Moses  forbid  them."  How  noble  his  answer ! 


162  THE  CITY: 

"  Enviest  thou  for  me  ?  Would  God  that  all 
the  Lord's  people  were  prophets,  and  that  the 
Lord  did  put  his  Spirit  upon  them  !" 

Were  such  moral  agencies  established  over 
all  our  cities,  and  wrought  with  the  energy  of 
men  who  trust  in  Grod,  and  are  fired  with  the 
love  of  souls,  were  the  churches  to  do  their 
part  in  the  matter  of  religion,  and  the  state  to 
do  her  part  in  the  matter  of  education,  our 
country  might  stand  till  the  day  of  doom. 
Then  it  would  appear,  that  although  Britain 
bears  no  eagle  on  her  banner,  yet  with  her 
foot  upon  the  "Eock  of  ages,"  and  her  undaz- 
zled  eye  fixed  on  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness, 
in  this  respect  she  belongs  to  the  eagle  tribe, 
that  she  can  moult  her  wings  and  renew  her 
youth.  "  For  what  saith  the  Lord,  Hast  thou 
not  known?  hast  thou  not  heard,  that  the 
everlasting  God,  the  Lord,  the  Creator  of  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth  not,  neither  is 
weary?  There  is  no  searching  of  His' under 
standing;  he  givetli  power  to  the  faint,  and  to 
them  that  have  no  might,  he  increaseth 
strength.  Even  the  youths  shall  faint  and  be 


ITS   SINS   AND    SORROWS.  163 

weary,  and  the  young  men  shall  utterly  fall ; 
but  they  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew 
their  strength  ;  they  shall  mount  up  with 
wings  as  eagles,  they  shall  run  and  not  be 
weary,  they  shall  walk  and  not  faint." 

But  if  this  is  not  to  be  done,  and  nothino- 

o 

effectual  is  to  be  done  to  meet  the  evils  that 
afflict  our  country,  what  "  shall  be  the  end 
of  these  things  ?"  Unless  they  are  met,  met 
in  time,  and  before  the  constitution  sinks 
and  loses  all  power  to  rally,  the  end  of  them 
must  be  the  ruin  of  our  land !  Our  cities, 
especially  our  large  cities,  being  in  this,  as 
they  are  in  every  other  country,  the  great 
centres  of  influence,  if  they  increase  in  igno 
rance,  irreligion,  and  immorality  during  the 
next  century  as  they  have  done  in  the  past, 
those  who  fear  the  God  of  heaven  and  profess 
the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  will  find  themselves 
a  weak  minority.  We  are  just  now  rapidly 
moving  on  to  such  a  dangerous  crisis.  That 
is  the  rock  toward  which  the  vessel  of  the 
state  is  drifting.  And  when  that  happens,  it 


164  THE  CITY: 

needs  no  augur  to  tell  "  what  shall  be  the  end 
of  these  things." 

Take  as  types  of  their  class  the  two  largest 
cities  in   England   and   Scotland.      Look   at 
London   and  Glasgow.      He   must  be  blind 
who  sees  nothing  alarming  in  the  moral  aspect 
of  these  commercial  capitals.      There,  igno 
rance  and  irreligion  are  washing  away  the  soil 
from  beneath  the  lowest  courses  of  the  social 
fabric.     Let  that  continue — let  this  undermin 
ing  process  go  on  till  a  convulsion  come,  and 
no  power  on  earth  can  keep  the  pyramid  from 
toppling  over — burying  throne  and  altar,  and 
all  that  stands  above,  in  a  common  ruin.    The 
upper  classes  of  society  should  know — God 
grant  that  they  may  not  learn  the  lesson  when 
it  is  too  late !— that  whatever  be  the  distance 
between  them,  no  elevation  separates  their  in 
terests  from  the  lowest  people  ;  that  there  is  a 
God  who  reigneth  upon  earth  ;  and  that,  by  a 
decree  of  Providence,  as  sure  as  those  that 
rule  the  courses  of  tide  or  time,  those  who  ne 
glect  the  interests  of  others  shall  themselves 
suffer  in  the  end.    When  the  body  of  the  peo- 


ITS  SINS  AND   SOKROWS.  165 

pie  go  down,  they  shall  not  perish  alone ;  in 
them  down  goes  a  mighty  ship,  creating  in  its 
descent  a  tremendous  whirlpool  to  engulph 
the  rank  and  wealth,  the  religion  and  liberties, 
of  our  land.  We  are  most  concerned  for  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  because  it  is  in  their 
virtues  and  piety  that  the  power  and  per 
manence  of  kingdoms  lie.  They  form  the 
mass  of  the  social  fabric ;  and,  although  it 
will  stand  the  shock,  or  survive  the  decay 
which  destroys  its  lofty  and  more  ornamental 
parts,  let  it  be  destroyed,  and  these  are  buried 
in  the  ruins.  "When  the  mass  of  the  people 
cease  to  be  pervaded  with  morality  and  piety 
(look  at  France,  for  instance),  by  a  law  as 
sure  as  that  which,  under  certain  conditions, 
changes  wine  into  vinegar,  the  sweetest  into 
the  sourest  things,  liberty  passes  into  licen 
tiousness — an  intolerable  evil,  from  which  to 
be  relieved  men  submit  their  necks  to  the 
yoke  of  despotism.  There  is  no  choice  for 
nations  but  the  fear  of  God  or  the  terror  of 
man — the  power  of  the  Bible  or  the  point  of 
the  bayonet. 


166  THE  CITY: 

"When  men  die,  corruption  commonly  be 
gins  after   death ;    but  when    nations   die,  it 
always  begins  before  it.    And  as  in  that  man's 
gangrened  extremities  and  swollen  feet,  and 
slow  circulation,  I  see  the  heralds  of  death 
approaching— in  these  godless  masses,  sunk  in 
ignorance,  lost  to  the  profession  of  religion, 
and  even  to  the  decent  habits  of  civilized  so 
ciety,  I   see   the   most   alarming    signs   of  a 
nation's  danger— unless  remedies  are  promptly 
applied,  the  unmistakeable  forerunners  of  a 
nation's  death.     Unless  early,  active,  adequate 
measures  are  employed  to  arrest  the  progress 
of  our  social  maladies,  there  remains  for  this 
mighty  empire  no  fate  but  the  grave— that 
grave  which  has  closed  over  all  that  have  gone 
before  it.    Where  are  the  Assyrian  and  Egyp 
tian  monarchies?     Where  is  the  Macedonian 
empire?     Where  the  world-wide  power   of 
Eome?     Egypt  lies  entombed  amid  the  dust 
of  her  catacombs.     Assyria  is  buried  beneath 
the  mounds  of  Nineveh.     Eome  lives  only  in 
the  pages  of  history,  survives  but  in  the  mem 
ory  orher  greatness  and  the  majestic  ruins  of 


ITS   SINS  AND  SORROWS.  167 

the  "  Eternal  City."  Shall  our  fate  resemble 
theirs?  Shall  it  go  to  prove  that  Providence 
has  extended  the  same  law  of  mortality  to 
nations  that  lies  on  men?  That  they  also 
should  struggle  through  the  dangers  of  a  pre 
carious  infancy ;  grow  up  into  the  beauty,  and 
barn  with  the  ardor,  of  youth ;  arrive  at  the 
vigor  of  a  perfect  manhood ;  and  then,  slowly 
sinking,  pass  through  the  blindness  and  decay 
of  old  age,  until  they  drop  into  the  tomb  ? 

Under  God,  it  depends  upon  ourselves 
whether  that  shall  or  shall  not  be  our  fate. 
Matters  are  not  so  far  gone  but  it  may  be 
averted.  A  great  French  general,  who  reached 
the  battlefield  at  sun-down,  found  that  the 
troops  of  his  country  had  been  worsted  in  the 
fight.  Unskilful  arrangements  had  neutral 
ized  Gallic  bravery,  and  offered  the  enemy 
advantages  they  were  not  slow  to  seize.  He 
accosted  the  unfortunate  commander.  Having 
rapidly  learned  how  matters  stood,  he  pulled 
out  his  watch,  turned  his  eye  on  the  sinking 
sun,  and  said,  "  There's  time  yet  to  gain  the 
victorv."  He  rallied  the  broken  ranks.  He 


168      THE  CITY:   ITS  SINS  AND  SORROWS. 

placed  himself  at  their  head.  And  launching 
them,  with  the  arm  of  a  giant  in  war,  upon 
the  columns  of  the  foe,  he  plucked  the  prize 
from  their  hands — won  the  day.  There  is 
time  yet,  also,  to  save  our  country.  There  is 
no  time  to  lose.  To  her  case  perhaps  may  be 
applied  the  words,  which  we  would  leave  as 
a  solemn  warning  to  every  worldly,  careless, 
Christless  man,  "  Behold  now  is  the  accepted 
time  ;  behold  now  is  the  day  of  salvation." 


APPENDIX. 


Yet  in  these  different  kingdoms,  &c.  —  P.  56. 

IN  Paris,  we  saw  two  persons  who  were  drunk,  one  a 
soldier,  the  other  an  ouvrier  ;  we  also  saw  one  soldier 
drunk  in  Brussels,  and  these  three  were  all  we  saw 
drunk  during  a  seven  weeks'  tour  spent  in  various  of  the 
kingdoms,  and  large  as  well  as  small  towns,  of  the  Con 
tinent.  We  never  saw  a  woman  drunk,  either  during 
these  seven  weeks  passed  last  summer  on  the  Continent, 
nor  during  five  months  we  spent  many  years  ago  in 
Paris.  In  none  of  these  Continental  towns,  save  in  the 
Jewish  quarter  in  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  did  we  see 
anything  like  the  foulness  which  in  their  closes,  courts, 
and  alleys,  disgrace  our  large  cities,  and  is  enough  to 
degrade  their  inhabitants.  Save  in  the  Canton  of  the 
Valais,  a  very  poor  and  Popish  district  of  Switzerland, 
we  saw  no  rags,  nor  any  such  foul  wretchedness,  as  is 
found  m  the  low  districts  of  all  our  large  towns.  We 
saw  poverty  sometimes,  but  it  was  decent  poverty  ;  and 
the  worst  clad  children  had  none  of  that  air  of  misery 
and  sadness,  worn  by  hundreds  at  home,  who  are  the 
unhappy  offspring  of  debauched  and  brutal  parents. 
Public  amusements  and  social  enjoyments  of  an  jimocent 
U 

* 


Of 


170  APPENDIX. 

kind  are  too  little  encouraged  among  us ;  and  here  the 
upper  classes  of  society  stand  separated  by  too  wide  a 
gulph  from  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  There  peer 
and  peasant,  king  and  subject,  rub  shoulders  with  each 
other  in  the  same  public  gardens,  and  the  humbler  classes 
behave  well  because  they  are  treated  well. 

In  the  charges  of  the  English  Judges. — P.  58. 

Judge  Coleridge:  "There  is  scarcely  a  crime  comes 
before  me  that  is  not,  directly  or  indirectly,  caused  by 
strong  drink" 

Judge  G-urney  :  "  Every  crime  has  its  origin,  more  or 
less,  in  drunkenness" 

Judge  Pattison :  "If  it  were  not  for  this  drinking, 
you  (the  jury)  and  I  v/ould  have  nothing  to  do." 

Judge  Alderson:  "Drunkenness  is  the  most  fertile 
source  of  crime;  and  if  it  could  be  removed,  the^ assizes 
of  the  country  would  be  rendered  mere  nullities." 

Judge  Wightman:  "I  find,  in  every  calendar  that 
comes  before  me,  one  unfailing  source,  directly  or  indi 
rectly,  of  most  of  the  crimes  that  are  committed — in 
temperance" 

Judge  Williams:  "Experience  has  proved  that  almost 
all  crime  into  which  juries  have  had  to  inquire,  may  be 
traced,  in  one  way  or  other,  to  the  habit  of  drunkenness" 

There  is  a  city  in  England,  &c. — P.  58. 

During  the  Session  of  1852,  Mr.  Hume,  M.P.,  moved 
for  a  return  of  the  number  of  persons  taken  into  cus 
tody  for  drunkenness  and  disorderly  conduct  in  Great 


APPENDIX.  171 

Britain  and  Ireland  each  year,  from  1841  tQ  1851.  From 
these  returns  it  was  found,  that  while  in  Liverpool,  with 
a  population  of  400,000,  18,522  persons,  and  in  Glasgow, 
with  a  population  of  360,000, 14,870  persons  were  taken 
into  custody  by  the  police  for  the  above  offence ;  Man 
chester,  with  a  population  of  316,000,  presented  only 
787  cases.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  while  in 
Scotland  the  instructions  of  the  police  are  most  stringent, 
in  Manchester  no  notice  is  taken  of  drunkenness  unless 
in  case  of  assault  or  breach  of  the  peace,  and  not  always 
then.  Convinced  from  their  own  experience  that  so 
great  a  discrepancy  as  these  returns  exhibit  arose  from 
these  and  other  circumstances,  rather  than  from  a  real 
prevalence  of  sobriety  among  the  population  of  our  city, 
the  committee  of  the  Manchester  and  Salford  Temper 
ance  Society  determined  to  submit  the  question  of  the 
drinking  habits  of  the  people,  at  least  so  far  as  Sunday  it 
concerned,  to  a  rigid  investigation.  They  resolved  to 
watch  all  the  houses  in  which  intoxicating  drinks  are 
usually  sold,  and  to  keep  an  exact  record  of  the  number 
of  visits  paid  to  each  during  a  certain  time.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  enumerate  each  separate  district ;  a  few, 
therefore,  must  suffice  : — 

St.  Michael's  Ward. — Inhabited  principally  by  the 
operative  class;  a  great  portion  by  thieves,  beggars, 
and  prostitutes.  Angel  Street,  Dych  Street,  Charter 
Street,  Ludgate  Hill,  and  adjoining  streets,  at  two 
o'clock,  on  Sunday,  May  28th,  were  crowded  with  men, 
women,  and  children,  in  rags  and  filth,  some  drinking 
in  the  streets,  others  gambling ;  in  fact  this  district  can 
only  be  described  as  a  very  hell  upon-  earth.  Most  of 
the  men  taking  this  ward  had  to  be  changed  every  half 


172  APPENDIX. 

hour,  or  hour;  some  were  driven  off  by  mobs,  and 
others  stoned.  Number  of  houses  taken,  162 ;  visits, 
13,738  men,  7862  women,  2905  children ;  total,  24,505, 
being  43  more  than  an  average  of  151. 

District  bounded  by  Great  Jackson  Street,  Stretford 
Road,  and  Chester  Road.— Several  fights  were  reported, 
at  which  no  police  appeared ;  also  one  house  filled  with 
pigeon  flyers,  who  were  flying  their  birds  the  whole 
afternoon  and  evening  from  the  front  of  the  house; 
another  house  filled  with  dog-fighters,  with  their  dogs, 
during  the  evening.  There  were  one  dog-fight,  and  two 
fights  among  the  men  frequenting  the  house,  at  none 
of  which  any  policemen  interfered.  Number  of  houses, 
96;  visits,  6331  men,  4116  women,  1219  children;  total, 
11,666,  being  an  average  of  127  to  a  house. 

Deans^ate  and  Chester  Road,  including  a  beer-house 
on  Victoria  Bridge.— Swan  Inn  :  996  men,  590  women, 
146  children;  total,  1732.  No.  274:  777  men,  676  wo 
men,  65  children;  total,  1518.  Farmers'  Arms:  591 
men,  582  women,  28  children;  total,  1281.  Crown  Inn : 
671  men,  360  women,  69  children;  total,  1100.  The 
Parsonage  Inn,  in  the  Parsonage:  858  men,  81  women, 
6  children ;  total,  945.  The  person  watching  this  house 
went  in  at  one  o'clock,  being  half  an  hour  after  it  was 
opened,  and  counted  80  persons  sat  drinking.  Trafford 
Arms,  Victoria  Bridge,  a  singing  room:  549  men,  151 
women,  420  youths;  total  1120;  visitors  consist  prin 
cipally  of  young  people.  Ten  other  houses,  with  from 
400  to  800  each.  Total  number  of  houses  in  Deansgate 
and  Chester  Road,  58;  visited  by  12,387  men,  6342 
women,  1314  children;  total,  19,845,  being  an  average 
of  347T  to  a  house. 


APPENDIX. 


173 


The  following  is  a  general  summary.  It  will  be  seen 
that  while  the  proceedings  of  the  committee  extended 
over  ten  Sundays,  yet,  as  no  house  was  taken  twice,  a 
fair  average  of  the  attendance  at  each  has  been  arrived 
at.  The  Committee  are  aware  of  no  particular  cause 
which  could  operate  to  render  the  results  of  one  Sun 
day's  census  different  from  another ;  and  it  would  have 
rendered  observation  much  more  difficult  had  not  due 
caution  and  secresy  been  observed.  The  committee 
have  every  reason  to  believe  in  the  perfect  accuracy  of 
the  figures. 

GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  VISITS  DURING  LEGAL  HOURS. 


Date. 

Houses. 

Men. 

Women'child'n.1   Total. 

April  2 
"      9 

2 

8 

936  i     278 
2,163       902 

4'?9 
51 

1,643 
3,116 

"    16 
"    23 

36 
57 

9,789    5,277 
7,056  1  3,981 

851 
692 

15,917 
11,729 

"    30 

95 

7,078 

6,378 

935 

14,391 

May    7 

100 

6,699 

4,088 

1,109 

11,896 

"    14,     *U 

18,239 

9,566 

2,559 

30,364 

"    21     329 

27,684 

16  :>'2'2 

6,201 

50,207 

"    28!    854 

25,602 

16,299 

6,528 

48,429 

June  4 

222 

14,878 

8,518 

4,230 

27,626 

Total. 

1,437 

120,124 

71,609  23,585  215,318 

Vaults. 

Public 

Beer 
house. 

Total. 

Aver'ge 

114 

114 

29,568 

17,926 

4,147 

51,641 

453 

127 

127 

14,880 

7,947 

2,835 

25,662 

202 

746 

746 

51,474 

27,512 

11,544 

90,530 

121 

Mixed. 

37 

m 

281 

440 

24,202 

17,726 

5,059 

47,485 

106} 

Total. 

151 

259 

1,027 

1,437 

120,124 

71,609 

23,585 

215,318!    149* 

Including  54  policemen  ON  DUTY,  who  remained  from 
five  minutes  to  half  an  hour.  Twenty  public  houses 
were  found  closed. 

In  closing  tliis  brief  report  of  their  labors,  the  com- 
15* 


174  APPENDIX. 

mittee  beg  to  express  their  thanks  to  the  various  super 
intendents  and  teachers  of  Sunday-schools,  and  also  to 
the  several  members  of  branch  committees,  who  assisted 
in  taking  these  statistics.  The  committee  would  earnest 
ly  direct  the  attention  of  every  philanthropist  to  the 
fearful  state  of  demoralization  thus  laid  open;  they  would 
especially  draw  attention  to  the  vast  number  of  beer 
houses  in  the  city,  1572 ;  to  the  class  of  persons  keep 
ing,  as  to  those  who  visit,  these  Dens.  It  is  a  fearful 
fact  that  many  of  them  are  attended,  and  mainly  sup 
ported,  by  mere  youths  of  from  14  to  17  years  of  age. 

With  agencies  for  evil  so  potent  and  subtle — with 
temptations  so  numerous  and  so  widely  spread — and, 
above  all,  with  a  traffic  in  debauchery  and  crime  pro 
tected  and  encouraged  by  law — what  hope  for  the 
triumph  of  pure  religion  and  virtue  among  our  debased 
and  sensual  population  ?  Does  not  the  sin  of  Britain 
cry  aloud  for  judgment?  How  long  will  Christians  and 
philanthropists  hesitate  ?  How  long  shall  paltry  custom 
shield  from  infamy  and  disgrace  those  who  profit  by  this 
sin  ?  Let  one  earnest,  heartfelt  cry  be  sent  forth,  which, 
heard  amid  the  echo  of  political  and  party  strife,  shall 
tell  our  legislators  that  the  people  of  England  will  no 
longer  groan  under  this  oppressive  burden  of  death  ; 
that  they  will  labor  and  pray  until  the  accursed  traffic 
be  swept  from  their  midst  forever ! 

Cause  to  thank  (rod  for  that  Act  of  Parliament. — 

P.  66. 

Acts  of  Parliament  cannot  make  men  sober,  other 
wise  than  by  removing  the  temptations  which  foster 
habits  of  intemperance.  Forbes  Mackenzie's  Act,  which 


APPENDIX. 


175 


no  one  can  wonder  at  those  attacking  who  make  their 
fortunes  out  of  the  vices  of  the  people,  has  been  attacked 
by  others  of  whom  better  things  might  have  been  ex 
pected.  The  satisfactory  accounts  of  its  working  which 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  should  long  ago  have 
silenced  its  opponents  ;  but  they  contrived,  with  a 
courage  worthy  of  a  better  cause,  to  fight  "  upon  their 
stumps,"  and  continued  to  insist  that  this  has  proved  a 
complete  failure.  It  will  rejoice  every  true  friend  of  the 
people,  and  right-hearted  Christian  man,  to  find  by  the 
following  report  of  Mr.  Linton  how  completely  that  Act 
has  succeeded. 

The  beneficial  effects  of  it  are  very  distinctly  brought 
out  in  the  following  table.  By  that  Act,  which  came 
into  operation  in  1854-.  no  intoxicating  liquors  can  be 
sold  for  consumption  on  the  premises,  save  to  "bonafide" 
travellers,  before  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  not 
at  all  between  eleven  o'clock  on  Saturday  night  and 
eight  o'clock  on  Monday  morning.  This  Act,  which 
shuts  up  all  drinking  shops  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  also 
all  inns,  save  to  "  bona  fide"  travellers,  unfortunately 
applies  only  to  Scotland. 

NUMBER  ON  SUNDAYS. 


MALES. 

FEMALES. 

BOTH  SEXES. 

Wi 

•ST£ 

*l! 

Total. 

ii 

•£«<•§ 

sgl 

*ti 

Totnl. 

osind  Druuk 

nnd  kept 
till  Sober. 

Drunk 
when  Ap 
prehended. 

Tutu!. 

Pn 

* 

1852 

491 

363 

854 

288 

260 

498 

i    729 

628 

I,3o2 

1858 

427 

384 

811 

214 

2RO 

494  jl     641 

664 

1,305 

1854 

2S8 

260 

548 

172 

168 

835  II    455       423 

878 

1855 

234 

194 

428 

155 

185 

340 

889 

379 

768 

1856 

275 

165 

440 

161 

168 

829 

436 

888 

769 

176 


APPENDIX. 


It  has  been  alleged  by  the  opponents  of  this  Act  (for, 
strange  to  say,  it  has  had  opponents),  that  the  forced 
sobriety  of  the  Sabbath-day  only  led  to  a  greater  excess 
in  drinking  on  the  Saturday  or  Monday.  The  unfound 
ed  nature  of  that  statement  is  demonstrated  by  the  fol 
lowing  table : — 

NUMBER  ON  SATURDAYS,  SUNDAIS,  AND  MONDAYS. 


• 

1852. 

1853. 

1854. 

1855. 

1856. 

'  Saturdays  
Sundays  
i  Mondays  

1933 
1852 
1169 

1879 
1305 
1236 

1853 
8T8 
1164 

1T83 
768 
1038 

1744 
769 
852 

I       Total  

4454 

4420 

8895 

3589 

8365 

It  has  been  alleged  that  not  less  than  sixty  millions 
of  money.  —  P.  74. 

That  this  statement  is  not  an  exaggeration,  and  that  it 
is  not  in  fact  30,  but  the  enormous  sum  of  60  millions 
sterling,  is  spent  year  by  year  in  Great  Britain  and  Ire 
land  on  intoxicating  liquors,  is  proved  by  the  following 
statistics.  They  are  extracted  from  the  Journal  of  the 
Statistical  Society  of  London,  which  originally  appeared 
in'a  paper  read  by  Q.  R.  Porter,  Esq.,  F.R.S.,  before  the 
British  Association. 

The  quantity  of  spirits  of  home  production  : 

Paid  by  the  consumers  for  British  and  Irish 
spirits  consumed  within  the  kingdom  in  1S49,  £17,331,648 


Brandy,  ditto,  ................................ 

Beer  of  all  kinds,  exclusive  of  that  brewed  in 
private  families,  ...........................     25,383,165 

£49,474,623 


APPENDIX.  177 

Add  to  this  sum  the  value  of  all  the  beer  brewed  in 
private  houses,  and  also  the  money  paid  by  the  con 
sumers  for  5,582,385  gallons  of  foreign  wine  used  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  at 
least  60  millions  of  money  are  annually  spent  by  the 
people  on  what  is,  at  the  best  a  luxury,  in  most  cases  a 
pernicious,  in  all  cases  a  dangerous,  and  in  many  cases  a 
fatal  indulgence. 

It  has  been  stated  that  60,000  lives  are  annually 
lost.— P.  76. 

In  connection  with  this,  I  may  state  that  the  number 
of  infant  lives  destroyed,  through  the  neglect  and  starv 
ation  which  they  suffer  in  consequence  of  the  drunken 
habits  of  their  parents,  it  is  impossible  to  calculate,  but 
it  must  be  frightful  and  enormous.  Nothing  struck  us 
more,  when  we  were  accustomed  to  visit  the  families  of 
the  wretched  classes,  than  to  find  how  large  a  proportion 
of  the  children  were  cut  off  in  early  age ;  nor,  when  we 
saw  the  misery  and  crime  which  life  would  have  had  in 
store  for  them,  could  we  regret  to  learn  that  they  were 
safe  in  the  churchyard. 

The  destruction  of  human  life,  directly  caused  by 
drunkenness,  is  the  subject  of  a  paper  by  F.  Gr.  P.  Nel 
son,  Esq.,  F.L.S.,  a  distinguished  actuary,  read  before 
the  Statistical  Society  of  Sweden. 

He  shows  that  between  the  ages  of  21  and  30  years, 
the  mortality  among  drunkards  is  upwards  of  five  times 
that  of  the  general  community.  He  states  that  if  there 
be  anything  in  the  usages  of  society  calculated  to  de 
stroy  life,  the  roost  powerful  is  certainly  the  inordinate 


178  APPENDIX. 

use  of  strong  drink.  He  produces  tables  which  prove 
that  the  mortality  among  this  class  is  frightfully  high, 
and  unequalled  by  the  result  of  any  other  series  of  ob 
servations  made  in  any  class  of  the  population  of  this 
country  ;  and  adds — "  Sanitary  agitators  have  frequent 
ly  excited  alarm  about  the  wholesale  havoc  in  human 
life  going  on  in  the  badly-conditioned  districts  of  some 
of  our  large  cities ;  but  no  collection  of  facts  ever  brought 
under  attention  has  shown  so  appalling  a  waste  of  life  as 
exhibited  in  the  above  results." 

Referring  to  tables  founded  on  a  broad  basis,  and 
wrought  out  with  the  nicest  accuracy,  he  states : — "  It 
will  thus  be  seen,  that  an  intemperate  person,  of  age  20, 
has  an  equal  chance  of  living  fifteen  years,  while  a  per 
son  of  the  general  population  of  the  country,  at  the 
same  age,  has  an  equal  chance  of  living  44  years  longer. 
Again,  at  age  30,  the  intemperate  person  has  an  equal 
chance  of  living  13  years,  and  the  other  36  years.  Also, 
at  age  40,  the  chance  of  the  one  is  11  years,  and  of  the 
other  28  years." 

The  effect  of  intemperance  upon  different  classes  of 
the  people,  as  given  in  his  tables,  is  full  of  warning, 
and  curious,  although  such  as  we  might  expect.  The 
average  duration  of  life,  after  the  commencement  of  in 
temperate  habits,  is — 

Among  mechanics,  laborers,  and  working  men,    ...  18  years. 

"      traders,  dealers,  and  merchants, 17      " 

"      professional  men,  and  gentlemen, 15 

"      females, •  14      " 

Let  all  the  kingdom  listen  to  the  weighty  words  of  its 
Prime  Minister.  Lord  Palrnerston,  in  addressing  the 
laborers,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Laborers'  En- 


APPENDIX.  179 

couragement  Society,  said  : — "  It  is  the  duty  of  all  parents 
to  see  that  their  children  are  well  and  properly  educated 
— that  they  are  early  instructed,  not  merely  in  book 
learning,  in  reading  and  writing,  and  acquirements  of 
that  kind,  but  instructed  in  the  precepts  which  indicate 
the  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  and  that  they 
are  taught  the  principles  of  religion,  and  their  duty  to 
wards  God  and  man.  Now,  the  way  in  which  that  can 
be  done,  is  by  the  father  and  mother  building  up  their 
household  upon  that  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  excel 
lence  in  social  life — I  mean  a  happy  home  (applause). 
Now,  no  home  can  be  happy  if  the  husband  be  not  a 
kind  and  affectionate  husband,  and  a  good  father  to  his 
children.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  he  must  avoid  two  great 
rocks  on  which  too  many  men  in  the  humbler  ranks 
make  shipwreck — the  tobacco  shop  and  the  beer  shop. 
The  first  ruins  his  health,  and  leads  to  all  kinds  of  disease. 
If  he  were  a  man  living  on  a  desert  island,  and  isolated 
from  society,  this  might  be  a  matter  of  comparatively 
little  importance,  and  he  might  ruin  his  constitution  just 
as  he  pleased ;  but  the  laboring  classes  must  remember 
that  their  health  and  strength  are  the  support  of  their 
families,  and  if  they  ruin  the  one,  and  recklessly  waste 
the  other,  they  not  only  injure  themselves,  but  do  irre 
parable  damage  to  those  who  are  depending  upon  them. 
So  much  for  the  use  of  tobacco,  which  many,  to  their 
detriment,  indulge  in.  But  the  beer  shop  and  public 
house  go  further,  because  the  habits  there  contracted  not 
only  lead  to  the  degradation  of  the  individual  and  the 
impoverishment  of  his  family,  but  they  lead  to  offences 
and  crimes  which  tend  to  place  the  man  in  the  condition 
of  a  felon  and  a  convict.  No  man  who  ind nitres  in 


180  APPENDIX. 

drink  can  fail  to  feel  degraded  when  he  recovers  from 
his  intoxication,  and  that  sense  of  degradation  leads  him 
again  to  drown  his  cares  in  renewed  intoxication,  and 
from  step  to  step  he  falls  into  the  lowest  condition  that 
human  nature  can  be  degraded  to." 

/  charge  it  ivith  the  murder  of  innumerable  souls. — 
P.  105. 

Many  illustrations  of  this  charge  suggest  themselves. 
Let  us  select,  for  example,  the  case  of  Sabbath  school 
scholars.  Look  at  the  fatal  influence  which  drink  has 
been  found  to  exert  in  those  connected  with  Sabbath 
schools,  and  to  what  a  lamentable  and  frightful  extent  it 
has  neutralized  all  their  blessed  influences.  In  a  letter 
which  Mr.  Logan  addressed  to  the  editor  of  the  British 
Banner,  he  states  : — "  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  visit 
ing  prisons,  and  conversing  with  criminals  almost  weekly, 
for  upwards  of  twelve  years.  My  observations  extend 
to  almost  every  large  prison  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
For  the  last  eight  years  I  have  been  trying  to  ascertain 
what  proportion  of  our  prison  population  have  been  con 
nected  with  Sunday  schools.  When  collecting  informa 
tion  from  prisoners,  it  has  ever  been  a  general  rule  with 
me  to  prevent  them,  as  much  as  possible,  from  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  main  object  of  the  visit.  I  record 
a  few  facts  which  refer  to  different  parts  of  the  country. 
I  visited  78  of  the  88  prisoners  who  were  tried  at  the 
Glasgow  assizes,  in  September,  1848.  Seven  of  these 
could  neither  read  nor  write:  of  the  remaining  71  not 
less  than  38  males  and  24  females — total,  62— had  been 
connected  with  Sabbath  schools.  A  number  of  both 


APPENDIX.  181 

sexes  had  been  in  attendance  at  Sunday  schools  for 
three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  nine,  and  even  ten  years. 
To  prevent  anything  like  deception  on  this  point,  I 
cross-questioned  them  as  to  the  locality  of  the  schools, 
the  names  of  the  teachers,  etc.  I  likewise  spent  several 
days  in  calling  on  a  number  of  the  parents  and  relatives, 
in  different  parts  of  the  city,  and  the  replies  given  by  these 
parties  to  my  inquiries  fully  corroborated  the  statements 
of  the  convicts  themselves.  Fifty-nine  of  the  sixty-two 
criminals  admitted  that  drinking  and  public-house  com 
pany  had  not  only  been  the  chief  cause  of  their  leaving 
the  Sunday  school,  but  of  violating  the  laws  of  their 
country.  The  number  of  prisoners  who  were  tried  at 
the  Glasgow  assizes  in  March,  1849,  was  27  ;  I  visited 
25  of  them:  20  of  the  23  who  could  read  were  old 
Sunday  scholars,  and  19  acknowledged  that  they  had 
been  injured  by  strong  drink. 

"  The  Governor  of  the  Boys'  House  of  Refuge,  Glas 
gow,  informs  me,  in  a  note  of  the  22d  March,  1849,  that 
of  the  115  juvenile  delinquents,  73  had  been  connected 
with  Sabbath  schools.  He  also  states,  that  57  of  the 
children's  fathers,  and  47  mothers — total,  104 — were  in 
temperate  ;  and  41  of  the  youths  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  drinking  themselves.  The  matron  of  the  Females' 
House  of  Refuge  states,  November,  28,  1848,  that  of  the 
126  inmates,  including  50  unfortunate  women,  105  had 
been  connected  with  Sabbath  schools !  The  matron 
adds,  that  'intemperance  is  a  most  fruitful  source  of 
juvenile  delinquency,  and  also  of  crime  and  profligacy 
in  those  of  riper  years.' 

"It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark,  that  these  appal 
ling  facts  are  not  adduced  for  the  purpose  of  under- 
16 


182  APPENDIX. 

valuing  the  benevolent  efforts  of  Sunday  school  teachers. 
On  the  contrary,  I  feel  deeply  interested  in  their  disin 
terested  labors,  and  have  been  personally  identified  with 
them  for  more  than  twenty  years.  My  great  object  is  to 
convince  the  friends  of  Sunday  schools,  that  the  accursed 
drinking  usages  of  the  present  day  are  annually  robbing 
us  of  thousands  of  young  people  who  were  once  out 
most  hopeful  scholars." 

[Pages  might  be  filled  with  evidence  to  the  same  effect, 
but  let  the  following  statements  by  others  suffice] : — Tho 
master  of  a  large  day  school  in  the  vicinity  of  London, 
stated,  a  few  years  ago,  that  on  examining  a  roll  con 
taining  the  names  of  one  hundred  pupils,  he  ascertained 
upon  inquiry  that  ninety-one  of  them  had  become  drunk 
ards.  At  Launceston,  a  similar  investigation  took  place 
in  a  well-conducted  Sabbath  school,  and  out  of  one  hun 
dred  boys,  as  their  names  stood  on  the  register,  26  had 
left  the  neighborhood  and  were  unknown,  but  of  the  re 
maining  seventy-four,  forty  had  been  overcome  by  drunk 
enness! — Another  says:  "Of  sixty  scholars  in  a  Sab 
bath  school,  thirty  were  found  to  have  been  ruined 
through  drink." — Another,  the  Rev.  W.  Wight,  B.  A., 
says:  "  Out  of  a  list  of  eight  Sabbath  school  TEACHERS, 
seven  were  found  to  have  been  ruined  through  drink  1" 
Another,  a  minister  at  Ipswich,  says:  "Out  of  fifteen 
young  men  professing  piety  and  TEACHERS  in  the  Sab 
bath  school,  nine  were  ruined  through  drink!" — An 
other,  a  warm  friend  of  Sabbath  schools,  stated  that, 
"  In  a  town  in  Lancashire,  no  fewer  than  four  '  unfortu 
nate  females'  were  seen  together  in  the  street,  every  one 
of  whom  had  been  once  a  TEACHER  in  a  Sabbath  school !" 

"  A  few  months  ago  a  member  of  committee  visited 


APPENDIX.  183 

• 

one  of  the  singing-saloons  in  Rochdale,  and  on  a  Saturday 
evening,  about  eleven  o'clock,  he  -observed  about  sixteen 
boys  and  girls,  seated  at  a  table  in  front  of  the  stage ; 
several  of  the  lads  had  long  pipes,  each  with  a  glass  or 
jug  containing  intoxicating  liquor,  and  no  less  than  four 
teen  of  the  number  were  members  of  Bible  classes  in  our 
different  Sunday  schools.  There  they  sat,  listening  to 
the  most  obscene  songs,  witnessing  scenes  of  the  most 
immoral  kind,  and  spending  the  interval  in  swallowing 
liquid  fire."  It  is  added  :  "  These  sinks  of  iniquity  are 
thronged  with  old  Sunday  sc/jo?ars,  especially  on  Sabbath 
evenings ,  and  not  unfrequently  until  twelve  o'clock." 
Still  further  it  is  said :  "  The  appalling  results  of  the 
drinking  system  are  not  wholly  confined  to  the  children 
in  our  schools ;  many  a  promising  teacher  has  fallen  a 
victim." 

The  Rev.  JAMES  SHERMAN,  minister  of  the  Surrey 
Chapel,  said  : — "  The  question  has  been  asked,  what  be 
comes  of  the  senior  scholars  of  these  schools  ?  In  the 
schools  belonging  to  my  own  church  the  number  of 
scholars  is  3000,  with  400  gratuitous  teachers ;  but  I  am 
bound  to  say  that  few  of  those  children  become  mem 
bers  of  the  church  after  leaving  the  schools.  Where  do 
they  go  ?  Many  of  them  would  be  found,  as  soon  as 
they  arrived  at  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  to  become 
apprentices ;  and,  by  the  pernicious  system  which  pre 
vailed  among  the  working  classes  so  situate,  they  grew 
up,  many  of  them  to  bo  drunkards,  and  to  be  a  disgrace 
to  themselves  and  the  neighborhood.  A  teacher  of  a 
class  which  was  called  the  vestry-class,  had  collected  the 
statistics  in  respert  to  that  class,  consisting  of  forty-six. 
He  was  induced  to  examine  what  were  their  habits  in 


184  APPENDIX. 

regard  to  Temperance  during  the  preceding  seven  years, 
and  the  result  was  —  drunkards,  thirteen ;  occasional 
drunkards,  nine ;  steady  characters,  thirteen  ;  unknown, 
three,"  &c. 

These  are  dreadful  facts.  They  make  a  strong  appeal 
to  the  conscience  of  every  Christian  man.  They  loudly 
call  on  us  to  do  something,  to  do  everything  within  our 
power  by  precept  and  by  example,  by  labors  and  by 
sacrifices  to  put  an  end  to  an  evil  that  in  regard  to  thou 
sands  is  turning  the  blessed  gospel,  churches,  and  Sab 
bath  schools,  to  nought, 

Almost  all  the  crime. — P.  106. 

The  connection  between  crime  and  drunkenness  is 
strikingly  illustrated  by  the  following  table,  which  is 
extracted  from  Superintendent  Linton's  "  Keturns."  It 
appears  from  this  table,  that  nearly  one  half  of  the  crimes 
committed,  40  per  cent,  of  them,  were  committed  by 
parties  when  under  the  influence  of  intoxication.  Add 
to  this  percentage  the  number  of  crimes  committed  by 
those  whom  drink  has  brought  to  poverty — to  want; 
whom  drink  has  driven  to  desperation ;  whom  drink  has 
deprived  of  all  self-respect,  and  all  those  other  moral  in 
fluences  that  keep  men  and  women  from  crime;  and 
include  in  the  reckoning  the  number  of  crimes  commit 
ted  by  those  who  have  been  reared  in  ignorance,  sin,  and 
misery,  solely  and  entirely  in  consequence  of  the  de 
praved  and  dissipated  habits  of  their  parents,  and  no 
man  can  doubt  that  drink,  through  its  direct  or  indirect 
effects,  is  the  pregnant  cause  of  an  overwhelming  pro 
portion  of  the  crimes  of  our  country. 


APPENDIX. 


185 


NlTMBRR    AND    PERCESTAOE    OF    PERSON'S     APPREHENDED     FOR     CRIMEA 

OK  OFFENCES,  \viio  WERE  DRUNK  WHEN  THEY  COMMITTED  THEM. 


1 

MALES.              |j            FEMALES. 

BOTH  SEXES. 

i 

-*-<-3 

J. 

"3 

-5-1 

ci^ 

1 

A  4-1 

6. 

~  r^ 

2 

& 

III 

11 

PH 

1    " 

l|| 

II 

•Mi 

«  5 

^ 

1          ^ 

^ 

1852 

4,864  11,774 

36 

4,496 

1,626 

36 

9,360 

3,400 

37 

1853 

1854 

4,620 
3,892 

2,914 

1,S02 

43 
46 

4,913 
4,076 

1,089 
1,764 

40 
43 

9,533    4,003 
7,968    3,566 

41 
44 

1855 
1856 

3,448 
3,240 

1,590 
1,374 

46    I:  8,711 

42       3,719 

1,491 
1,392 

40 

37 

7,159 
6,959 

3,081 
2,766 

43 
39 

How  is  my  assertion  corroborated  by  the  following 
statements  ?  They  are  a  voice  from  the  prison.  It  gives 
forth  no  uncertain  sound. 

The  Governor  of  York  Castle  (Jno.  Noble,  Esq.): 
"  Nineteen  out  of  every  twenty,  who  come  under  my 
care,  come,  directly  or  indirectly,  through  drinking." 

The  Rev.  John  Reid,  Chaplain  to  the  Prisons  of  Glas 
gow  :  "  You  are  desirous  to  know  the  cause  of  crime 
in  these  quarters.  One  short  word  embraces  the  burden 
of  the  whole  matter  —  Drink!  DRINK!  Of  at  least 
twenty  thousand  prisoners,  including  juveniles,  with 
whom  I  have  conversed  in  private  during  the  last  four 
years,  I  am  certain  that  the  professedly  teetotal  portion 
of  them  have  been  under  the  five  hundredth  part  of  the 
whole." 

James  Backhouse,  Esq.  (the  celebrated  traveller  in 
Africa)  :  "  The  time  of  my  sojourn  in  the  Australian  col 
onies  was  from  the  beginning  of  1832  to  1838,  and  much 
of  this  time  was  occupied  in  visiting  the  prisoner  popu 
lation,  consisting  of  convicts  from  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  In  conversing  with  many  thousands  of  these, 
16* 


186  APPENDIX. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  the  large  proportion  that  had 
fallen  into  crimes  resulting  from  intemperance,  and  who 
referred  to  the  fines  and  footings  of  British  work-shops 
as  their  first  step  in  this  evil  course." 

Twelfth  Report  of  the  Inspectors  of  Prisons :  "  On  the 
question  being  put  to  a  number  of  prisoners  in  Edin 
burgh  gaol,  under  twenty  years  of  age — '  What  do  you 
assign  as  the  first  cause  of  your  falling  into  error?' 
'  Drink'  is  almost  the  invariable  answer." 

Eev.  George  Hislop,  Chaplain  to  prison  of  Edinburgh  : 
"  I  am  unable  to  mark  out,  with  arithmetical  precision, 
the  place  among  the  causes  of  crime  which  must  be 
assigned  to  this  habit  (intemperance)  ;  but  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  expressing  the  opinion  that  it  is  one  of  the 
most  active,  and,  at  present,  the  most  prevalent  of  second 
ary  causes." 

Rev.  If.  Meeres,  Chaplain  of  Rochester  gaol :  "  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying  that  a  very  large  proportion,  pos 
sibly  nineteen  out  of  every  twenty,  are  imprisoned 
through  the  effects  of  drunkenness" 

Rev.  W.  Brown,  General  Prison,  Perth :  "  Our  prison 
ers  in  general  are,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  victims  of 
intemperance." 

Rev.  Geo.  WLear,  Chaplain,  Bedford  gaol:  "My  ex 
perience  of  eighteen  years  justifies  the  conclusion  that 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  owe  their  imprison 
ment,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  intemperance" — "New 
prisons  and  new  regulations  will,  humanly  speaking,  bo 
of  little  benefit,  so  long  as  intemperance  prevails  to  the 
extent  it  now  does." 


APPENDIX. 


187 


The  legislature  may  render  essential  service.—?.  107. 

The  combined  influence  of  legislative  enactments  of 
the  reduction  of  public  houses,  of  total  abstinence  prin 
ciples,  and-  of  that  elevation  of  public  feeling  and  mor 
als,  which  is  mainly  to  be  attributed  to  the  attention 
which  temperance  societies  have  turned  to  the  subject 
of   drunkenness,    and   to   the    light   which   they   have 
thrown  upon  the  extent  and  evils  of  this  vice  appears 
m  the  improved  habits  of  the  people,  as  very  strikingly 
brought  out  in  the  following  tables.     They  demonstrate 
that  sobriety  is  on  the  increase,  and  drunkenness  on  the 
wane.     These  tables  are  extracted  from  -Returns  a,  to 
Crimes,  Offences,  and  Contraventions,  and  to  ca.es  of 
Drunkenness,"  prepared  for  the  Magistrates  and  Council 
by  Mr.  Lmton,  Superintendent  of  Police. 


1853 
1854 
1855 
1856 


Total  Number  taken  Charge  ofly  Vie  Police, 

MALES.  ~~f    F^IL^; I   iOTir^i: 


3,903  1,774 

3,460  2,014 

3,126  1,802 

2,993  1,590 

",847  1,374 


6.36  3,400  j  0,767 
5,727  4,003  !  9.730 
5,1S3  3.566  '8,749 

j«S|^ 

It  were  much  to  be  desired  that  tins  country,  whieh 
m  the  last,  and  m  the  beginning  of  the  present  eentury 


Tola!. 


188  APPENDIX. 

devoted  more  than  twenty  years,  all  its  energies,  and 
many  hundred  millions  of  money  to  wars  that  have  not 
prevented  a  Bonaparte  from  occupying  the  throne  of 
France,  and  which  I  may  say  devoted  other  twenty 
years  to  fighting  the  battles  of  political  reform,  would 
now  (Providence  permitting)  devote  at  least  twenty 
years,  and  all  the  millions  that  might  be  needed  for 
such  a  purpose,  to  the  grand  object  of  social  reforms — 
such  as  sanitary  improvements,  the  universal  education 
of  the  people,  promotion  of  temperance,  and,  through 
many  other  means,  the  comforts  and  elevation  of  the 
working  classes,  and  the  elevation  especially  of  the 
sunken  classes  of  society. 

In  reference  to  the  great  social  evil  of  intemperance,  a 
beginning  has  been  made — something  has  been  dono— 
but  much  yet  remains  to  be  done,  much — and  that  the 
better  part  also— which  the  legislators  cannot  do.  Our 
main  hope  lies  in  raising  the  tone  of  public  feeling  and 
opinion,  and  that  by  means  of  the  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  elevation  of  the  people.  We  would,  how 
ever,  venture  to  suggest,  for  the  consideration  of  our 
legislators,  the  following  measures.  They  would  do 
much  to  remove  temptation  out  of  the  way  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  check  the  growth  and  progress  of  intemper 
ance  : — 

1.  Until  public-houses,  opened  for  the  mere  purpose 
of  drinking,  are  declared  illegal,  because  carrying  on  a 
traffic  pernicious  to  the  interests  of  the  community,  a 
law  should  be  passed,  requiring  these  to  be  closed  at  an 
early  hour  in  the  evening,  as  they  are  now  by  law  kept 
shut  to  a  late  hour  in  the  morning.  The  keeping  of  them 
shut  till  eight  in  the  morning  has  preserved  many  a  poor 


APPENDIX.  189 

man  from  temptation  when  oa  the  road  to  his  work — 
the  closing  of  them  at  six  o'clock  at  night  would  do  still 
more  good,  by  preserving  many  a  working  man  from 
temptation  when  his  day's  work  was  over.  They  should 
be  made  to  resemble  the  ash-tree,  which  is  the  last  to 
open  up  its  leaves,  and  one  of  the  first  to  close  them. 

2.  All  places  opened  for  the  mere  purpose  of  drinking 
intoxicating  liquors  should  be  declared  illegal,  as  in  most 
cases  the  ruin  of  the  poor  and  a  curse  to  the  community. 
If  some  will  drink,  they  have  wife  and  children,  broth 
ers  and  sisters,  at  home,  to  prevent  their  drinking  to  ex 
cess,  or  becoming  slaves  to  the  habit.     The  interest  of 
the  dram-seller,  on  the  other  hand,  lies  in  inducing  them 
to  become  frequent  and  regular  customers  of  his  shop. 
The  more  they  drink,  and  the.  deeper  they  drink,  the 
worse  for  their  families,  but  the  better  for  him. 

3.  The  law  should  regard  every  man  or  woman,  who 
can  be  proved  before  a  jury  or  any  other  proper  author 
ity,  to  be  in  habit  and  repute  a  drunkard,  as  a  lunatic, 
and   deal  with  them  accordingly.     The  prospect  of  a 
shaven  head,  a  strait  jacket  (if  needful),  the  high  walls 
of  an  asylum,  and  the  society  of  the  insane,  would  strike 
men  with  salutary  terror.     Months  of  sobriety  would,  in 
many  instances,  so  restore  the  brain  and  body  to  health, 
that  the  person  would  acquire  the  power  of  resisting 
temptation,  and  come  out  to  drink  no  more — the  slave 
would  acquire  freedom  in  the  house  of  bondage.     That 
should  be  done  according  to  law  which  is  done  without 
law;  for  it  is  well  known  that,  within  the  House  of 
Refuge  here,  and  in  other  places  elsewhere,  hundreds  of 
poor  drunkards  are  shut  up.     Some  go  to  be  cured  by 
entire  removal  from  temptation,  some  consent  to  go  dur- 


190  APPENDIX. 

ing  a  fit  of  temporary  penitence,  when  under  the  remorse 
of  delirium  tremens ;  but,  however  they  go,  fortunately 
for  their  families,  society,  and  themselves,  they  find  it 
easier  to  get  in  than  get  out.  I  have  known  many  pa 
rents  disgraced  and  tormented  by  a  drunken  son,  many 
wives  maltreated  by  drunken  husbands,  whose  cruelty 
they  had  not  only  to  bear,  but  whom  their  industry  had 
to  support,  and  not  a  few  husbands  whose  life  was  em 
bittered,  and  whose  property  was  wasted,  and  whose 
children  were  neglected  and  ruined,  through  the  dissi 
pated  habits  of  the  mother  of  the  house.  To  all  these, 
what  a  relief  would  such  a  law  as  I  suggest  bring  ?  I 
know  a  man  in  a  respectable  position  in  this  town,  who, 
to  prevent  his  wife  selling  his  silver  spoons  and  pawning 
his  clothes  and  furniture,  made  her  a  regular  allowance 
of  two  bottles  of  whisky  per  day — and  she  drank  them. 
In  all  such  cases  the  law  ought  to  give  relief  in  justice 
to  a  good  as  against  an  evil  doer.  It  is  strange  to  see 
how  society  stands  by  and  allows  so  many  to  waste 
their  life,  their  wages,  their  substance  on  drink,  and 
thereby  throw  the  burden  of  maintaining  their  families 
on  the  sober  and  industrious  part  of  the  community. 
Virtue  with  us  is  taxed  to  support  vice. 

4.  As  the  drunkard  is  held  responsible  for  all  that  he 
does  in  a  state  of  drunkenness,  the  law  should  declare 
that  the  keeper  of  the  drinking-shop  within  which  he 
got  drunk  shall  share  in  his  responsibility.    No  man  can 
have  a  right,  for  the  sake  of  money,  to  convert  another 
man  into  a  madman,  and,  having  turned  him  out  on  so 
ciety,  to  say,  of  whatever  offence  in   his  madness  he 
commits,  "  my  hands  are  clean." 

5.  The  drunkard  who  deprives  himself  of  reason,  and 


APPENDIX.  191 

thereby  makes  himself  capable  of  committing  any  crime, 
should,  in  all  cases,  be  regarded  as  a  subject  of  punish 
ment  ;  and  the  keeper  of  the  drinking-shop,  who  sup 
plied  him,  should  be  punished  as  equally  guilty  with 
himself — in  many  instances  as  more  so. 

G.  Our  legislators  should  contrive  some  means  at  law 
whereby  those  who  create  the  poverty  of  the  country 
should  be  made  upon  their  own  shoulders  to  carry  the 
burden  of  it.  For  illustration's  sake,  take  this  case : — 
I  knew  a  man  who  left  a  public-house  drunk  on  a  Sat 
urday  night,  and  on  Sabbath  morning  was  found  smashed, 
stiff  and  dead,  at  the  foot  of  a  crag,  by  the  side  of  which 
his  path  homewards  lay.  The  burden  of  supporting 
that  man's  family  ought  to  have  been  laid,  not  upon  the 
public,  but  upon  the  publican ;  and  the  principles  of  such 
a  law  should  be  carried  out  to  its  fullest  possible  extent. 


Some  plead  for   better  lodgings  and  sanitary 
measures. — P.  108. 

The  urgent  necessity  of  these  in  Edinburgh  is  power 
fully  brought  out  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  Lord  Provost 
and  Magistrates,  by  Henry  Johnston,  Esq.,  H.E.I.C.S., 
and  in  a  pamphlet  which  that  gentleman  has  published 
on  the  state  of  our  closes  and  by-streets.  He  exposes 
to  those  who  never  turn  a  foot  in  the  way  of  these 
abodes  of  foul  wretchedness  and  misery  a  state  of  mat 
ters  ruinous  to  the  public  health,  pernicious  to  public 
morals,  and  a  disgrace  to  our  capital  and  its  inhabitants. 

Dr.  Greorge  Bell  published  some  years  ago  an  account 
of  the  houses  and  inhabitants  of  Blackfriars'  Wynd. 


192  APPENDIX. 

which  presents  a  most  doleful  view  of  the  sin,  misery 
wretchedness,  and  foulness  of  some  parts  of  our  city. 

But  the  necessity  of  sanitary  measures  could  not  be 
better  brought  out  than  by  the  following  extracts  from 
a  report  given  last  summer  by  Dr.  Letheby,  to  the  City 
Commissioners  of  Sewers  for  London  : 

"  I  have  also  been  at  much  pains  during  the  last  three 
months  to  ascertain  the  precise  conditions  of  the  dwell 
ings,  the  habits,  and  the  diseases  of  the  poor.     In  this 
way,  2208  rooms  have  been  most  circumstantially  in 
spected,  and  the  general  result  is,  that  nearly  all  of  them 
are  filthy,  or  over-crowded,  or  imperfectly  drained,  or 
badly  ventilated,  or  out  of  repair.     In  1989  of  these 
rooms,  all,  in  fact,  that  are  at  present  inhabited,  there 
are  5791  inmates,  belonging  to  1576  families  j  and  to 
say  nothing  of  the  too  frequent  occurrence  of  what 
may  be  regarded  as  a  necessitous  over-crowding,  where 
the  husband,  the  wife,'  and  young  family  of  four  or  five 
children  are  cramped  into  a   miserably  small  and  ill- 
conditioned  room,  there  are  numerous  instances  where 
adults  of  both  sexes,  belonging  to  different  families,  are 
lodged  in  the  same  room,  regardless  of  all  the  common 
decencies  of  life,  and  where  from  three  to  five  adults, 
men  and  women,  besides  a  train  or  two  of  children,  art 
accustomed  to  herd  together  like  brute  beasts  or  sav 
ages  ;  and  where  every  human  instinct  of  propriety  or 
decency  are  smothered.     Like  my  predecessor,  I  have 
seen  grown  persons  of  both  sexes  sleeping  in  common 
with  their  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters,  and  cousins,  anc" 
even  the  casual  acquaintance  of  a  day's  tramp  occupy 
ing  the  same  bed  of  filthy  rags  or  straw ;  a  woman  suf 
fering  in  travail  in  the  midst  of  males  and  females  of 


APPENDIX.  193 

different  families  that  tenant  the  same  room;  where 
birth  and  death  go  hand  in  hand ;  where  the  child  but 
newly  born,  the  patient  cast  down  with  fever,  and  the 
corpse  waiting  for  interment,  have  no  separation  from 
each  other,  or  from  the  rest  of  the  inmates.  Of  the 
many  cases  to  which  I  have  alluded,  there  are  some 
that  have  commanded  my  attention  by  reason  of  their 
unusual  depravity — cases  in  which  from  three  to  four 
adults  of  both  sexes,  with  many  children,  were  lodging 
in  the  same  room,  and  often  sleeping  in  the  same  bed. 
I  have  note  of  three  or  four  localities  where  48  men,  73 
women,  and  59  children  are  living  in  34  rooms.  In  one 
room  there  are  2  men,  3  women,  and  5  children ;  and  in 
another  1  man,  4  women,  and  2  children ;  and  when, 
about  a  fortnight  since,  I  visited  the  back  room  on  the 
ground  floor  of  No.  5,  I  found  it  occupied  by  1  man,  2 
women,  and  2  children ;  and  in  it  was  the  dead  body 
of  a  poor  girl,  who  had  died  in  childbirth  a  few  days  be 
fore.  The  body  was  stretched  out  on  the  bare  floor, 
without  shroud  or  coffin.  There  it  lay  in  the  midst  of 
the  living,  and  we  may  well  ask  how  it  can  be  other 
wise  than  that  the  human  heart  should  be  deadened  to 
all  the  gentler  feelings  of  our  nature,  when  such  sights 
as  these  are  of  common  occurrence. 

"So  close  and  unwholesome  is  the  atmosphere  of 
some  of  the  rooms,  that  I  have  endeavored  to  ascertain, 
by  chemical  means,  whether  it  does  not  contain  some 
peculiar  product  of  decomposition,  that  gives  to  it  its  foul 
odor  and  its  rare  powers  of  engendering  disease.  I 
find  that  it  is  not  only  deficient  in  the  due  proportion 
of  oxygen,  but  it  contains  three  times  the  usual  amount 
of  carbonic  acid,  besides  a  quantity  of  aqueous  vapor 
17 


194  APPENDIX. 

charged  with  alkaline  matter  that  stinks  abominably. 
This  is,  doubtless,  the  product  of  putrefaction  and  of  the 
various  foetid  and  stagnant  exhalations  that  pollute  the 
air  of  the  place.     In  many  of  my  former  reports,  and  in 
those  of  my  predecessor,  your  attention  has  been  drawn 
to  this  pestilential  source  of  disease,  and  to  the  conse 
quence  of  heaping  human  beings  into  such  contracted 
localities;  and  I  again  revert  to  it  because  of  its  great 
importance,  not  merely  that  it  perpetuates  fever  and  the 
allied  disorders,  but  because  there   stalks  side  by  side 
with  this  pestilence  a  yet  deadlier  presence,  blighting 
the  moral  existence  of  a  rising  population,  rendering 
their  hearts  hopeless,  their  acts  ruffianly  and  incestuous, 
and  scattering,  while  society  averts  her  eye,  the  retribu 
tive  seeds  of  increase  for  crime,  turbulence,  and  pauper- 


ism. 


All  who  are  familiar  with  the  homes  of  the  poorer  and 
the  haunts  of  the  wicked  and  lapsed  classes,  will  be 
reminded  by  this  report  of  scenes  which  they  themselves 
have  witnessed  in  our  large  cities. 

Before  the  Statistical  Society  at  Liverpool,  in  Septei 
ber  1837  Mr.  Langton  read  a  paper  on  the  mhabite 
courts  and  cellars  in  Liverpool.     The  courts  were  2271 
and  the  cellars  7493 ;  dark,  damp,  confined,  and  tenants 
by  nearly  30,000  souls. 

In  1838  Mr.  James  Heywood  read  a  paper  before  the 
Statistical  Society  of  London,  giving  an  account  of  a 
house-to-house  visitation,  of  176  families  in  Manchester 
165  houses  contained  many  cellars,  and  there  were  11 
separate  cellars. 

In  1847  a  committee  of  the  Statistical  Society  of  Lon 
don  inspected  the  dwellings,  room  by  room,  and  condi- 


APPENDIX.  195 

tion  of  the  inhabitants,  of  Church  Lane,  St.  Giles,  London. 
The  population  examined  was  463,  the  number  of  fami 
lies  100,  and  the  number  of  bedsteads  among  them  'JO. 
There  was  an  average,  therefore,  of  above  5  persons  to  1 
bed;  and  many  rooms  were  inhabited  by  as  many  as  22 
souls.  They  report  that  "  in  these  wretched  dwellings 
all  ages  and  both  sexes,  fathers  and  daughters,  mothers 
and  sons,  grown-up  brothers  and  sister?,  stranger  adult 
males  and  females,  and  swarms  of  children,  the  sick,  Hie 
dying,  and  the  dead,  are  herded  together  with  a  proxim 
ity  and  mutual  pressure  which  brutes  would  resist ;  where 
it  is  physically  impossible  to  preserve  the  ordinary  decen 
cies  of  life;  where  all  sense  of  propriety  and  self-respect 
must  be  lost,  to  be  replaced  only  by  a  recklessness  of 
demeanor  which  necessarily  results  from  vitiated  minds  ; 
and  yet  with  many  of  the  young,  brought- up  in  such 
hot-beds  of  mental  pestilence,  the  hopeless,  but  benevo 
lent  attempt  is  making  to  implant,  by  means  of  general 
education,  the  seeds  of  religion,  virtue,  truth,  order,  in 
dustry,  and  cleanliness;  but  which  seeds,  to  fructify  ad 
vantageously,  need,  it  is  to  be  feared,  a  soil  far  less  rank 
than  can  be  found  in  these  wretched  abodes.  Tender 
minds,  once  vitiated,  present  almost  insuperable  difficul 
ties  to  reformation;  bad  habits  and  depraved  feelings 
gather  with  the  growth,  and  strengthen  with  the- 
strength." 

In  what  large  town  in  the  kingdom  are  not  many  of 
the  poorer  classes  of  the  people  living  in  circumstances 
which  outrage  all  decency,  destroy  every  moral  feeling, 
and,  of  necessity,  lead  to  debasement,  dissipation,  and 
crime  ? 


196 


APPENDIX. 


The  principle  of  temperance,  as  I  hold  it. — P.  118. 

For  a  luminous  and  powerful  exposition  of  the  prin 
ciple  of  temperance,  as  held  by  the  writer  of  these  ser 
mons,  he  would  refer  the  reader  to  a  lecture  delivered  in 
London,  by  Professor  James  Miller  of  this  city,  and  en 
titled  "Abstinence,  its  Place,  and  Power." 


We  do  nothing  to  instruct  them,  <&c.  We  first  con 
demn  them  to  crime,  and  then  condemn  them  to 
punishment. — P.  137. 

The  following  statistics,  like  all  others  of  the  same  de 
scription,  plainly  show  how  intimately  crime  is  connected 
with  ignorance,  and  what  a  total  want  of  education  ex 
ists  amongst  the  lowest  class,  which  furnish  by  far  the 
larger  number  of  the  criminals  of  our  country. 

EXTRACT  from  the  CRIMINAL  STATISTICS  and  RETURNS  of 
the  MANCHESTER  POLICE. 

The  following  is  a  table  of  the  age  of  the  persons 
taken  into  custody,  with  the  degree  of  instruction,  for 
the  nine  months  ending  30th  September,  1856 : — 


No. 

Under  10  years 
of  age. 

10  years  nnd 
under  15. 

15  years  and 
under  20. 

Above 
20  years  of  age. 

44TO 

10 

418 

963 

3079 

APPENDIX. 


197 


or  INSTRUCTION  OF  THESE  4470. 


Neither  able  to 
read  or  write. 

1743 

Read  onlv,  or  read 
und  write 
imperfectly. 

Rend  and  wile 
well. 

Superior 
instruction. 

2623 

103 

1 

PER  CENTAGE. 


Total. 

Of  the 

uneducated. 

Of  the 

imperfectly 
educated. 

Of  the 
well  ;md  superior 
educated. 

4470 

38-99 

58-63 

2-32 

In  regard  to  by  far  the  largest  proportion  of  those 
entered  in  the  column  of  the  imperfectly  educated,  so 
far  as  all  practical  purposes  and  the  benefits  of  education 
are  concerned,  they  might  with  propriety  be  entered 
under  the  head  of  not  educated  at  all  ;  for  it  has  always 
been  found  that  those  who  could  not  read  but  with  dif 
ficulty  did  not  read  at  all,  and  were  as  completely  shut 
out  from  such  means  of  improvement  as  books  afforded 
as  those  who  do  not  know  the  letters. 


There  are  thousands,  and  tens  of  thousands,  and 
hundreds  of  thousands,  of  the  children  of  this 
land,  who  are  growing  up  strangers  to  the  bene 
fits  and  blessings  of  education.  Ignorance  is  their 
sole,  sad  inheritance.  They  are  punished  for  it, 
impoverished  for  it,  imprisoned  for  it,  banished 
for  it,  and  hanged  for  it.  —  P.  139. 

For  full  proof  of  this  statement,  we  refer  to  the  Gov 
ernment  census  on  education, 


198  APPENDIX. 

The  low  state  of  education  in  Birmingham,  where  in 
fant  labor  is  remunerative,  and  where  thousands  of  poor 
children  are  found  at  work  who  ought  to  be  at  school,  is 
strikingly  brought  out  by  the  fact  that  fourteen  months 
is  the  full  average  time  which  the  working  classes  of 
Birmingham  spend  at  school. 

In  regard  to  Glasgow,  we  have  been  told  that  Mr. 
Strang,  the  great  statist  of  Glasgow,  calculates  that  there 
are  from  6000  to  7000  children  in  that  city,  between  5 
and  10  years  of  age,  who  are  not  attending  any  school 
Captain  Smart,  the  very  intelligent  superintendent  of 
police  in  that  city,  reckons  that   the  number  of  these 
children  will  exceed  10,000.     A  remarkably  able,  and 
intelligent  gentleman,  who  has  given  much  attention  to 
philanthropic  subjects,  writes  me  in  reference  to  Glas 
gow  :_« I  have  had  occasion  to  observe,  since  the  Regis 
tration  Act  came  into  operation,  that  while  bastardy  is 
common  among  mill-workers,  the  inability  to  write  is 
equally  common.     The  number  of  uneducated  adults  is 
very  great.     It  is  of  great  importance  to  observe  that 
the   schools  are  unequally  distributed.     I  find   that  in 
twelve  districts,  containing  12, 194  habitually  non-church- 
going  families,  there  are  no  schools ;  and  these  districts 
include   streets   teeming  with    '  ragged  boys.'  "     Now, 
these  figures,  which  I  believe  are  correct,  square  with 
others  upon  which  I  place  more  reliance.     The  Trpn 
parish,  which  may  be  regarded  as  a  medium  example  of 
the  parishes  which  contain  the  bulk  of  the  poor  popula 
tion,  contains  2200  families,  and  estimating  each  family 
at  nearly  6  individuals,  which  I  believe  is  a  truer  estimate 
than  44-,  the  population  of  this  parish  is  13,500.     In  this 
parish  there  are  3  schools,  and  at  these  schools  there  are 


APPENDIX.  199 

not  more  than  500  children.  But  each  family  can  sup 
ply  a  child  between  5  and  11  years  of  age,  and  thus 
there  is  only  a  fraction  of  the  cliildren  at  school.  This 
district  contains  many  of  the  city  Arab  tribe.  How 
credible,  Dr.  Bell  adds,  is  the  remark  which  Mr.  M'Cal- 
lum,  the  admirable  Superintendent  of  the  Eeformatory 
School,  made  to  me  : — "  It  is  a  rare  thing  to  meet  with 
an  educated  juvenile  criminal;  as  a  class  they  are  deplor 
ably  ignorant." 

That  the  want  of  education  is  far  greater  in  Glasgow 
than  any  thing  which  Mr.  Strang  or  the  superintendent 
of  police  has  conjectured — for  these  gentlemen  do  not 
profess  to  do  any  thing  more  than  hazard  a  conjecture — 
will  appear  by  looking  into  the  state  of  another  large 
manufacturing  town,  where  the  Education  question  has 
been  keenly  discussed  for  many  years,  and  the  truth  con 
nected  with  it  thoroughly  expiscated.  I  refer  to  Man 
chester  ;  and  as  is  Manchester,  I  have  no  doubt,  so  are 
almost  all  our  large  manufacturing  towns.  Our  demand 
for  Educational  legislation,  extension,  and  improvement, 
is  sometimes  met  by  the  statement  that  we  have  made 
such  progress  with  our  present  means  and  machinery, 
that  it  is  best  to  let  things  alone,  and  that  in  the  course 
of  years  the  evil  will  be  completely  met.  In  many  parts 
of  the  country,  no  doubt,  much  progress  in  a  right  direc 
tion  has  been  made,  but  apart  altogether  from  the  case*. 
of  the  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  whom  the 
let-alone  system  consigns  to  ruin,  until  it  grows  adequate 
to  the  wants  of  the  country,  on  the  very  improbable  sup 
position  that  it  would  ever  do  so,  it  is  not  the  fact  that 
the  state  of  matters  is  getting  better  in  our  large  towns 
under  the  present  system.  The  fact  is,  that  notwith- 


200 


APPENDIX. 


standing  all  the  exertions  made  under  the  present 
plan  to  meet  the  evil  and  make  headway,  with  all 
the  steam  up,  we  are  going  astern  in  our  large  manu 
facturing  towns ;  the  evil  is  growing  worse  and  worse. 
That  appears  from  the  following  table,  extracted  from 
the  Manchester  and  Salford  Statistical  Society's  Ke- 
ports: — 


Year. 

In  Manchester,  Salford,  Broughton,  and  Pendleton. 

Proportion. 
One  in 

Day  School  Attendance. 
Total,  public  and  private. 

Population. 

18-34-5 

24,365 

250,373 

10,27 

1851 

29,145 

807,816 

13,30 

It  appears,  therefore,  in  respect  to  day-school  attend 
ance,  at  the  present  time,  it  is  worse  than  it  was  17 
years  ago;  inasmuch  as  from  1834-5  to  1851,  day-school 
attendance,  considered  in  relation  to  the  population,  has 
decreased  from  1  in  every  10  to  1  in  13  odds. 

The  following  Table  gives  us  the  educational  wants  of 
Manchester,  as  ascertained  in  1851 ;  and  taking  that 
town  as  a  standard  by  which  to  judge  of  our  great 
centres  of  manufacture,  it  is  dreadful  to  think  of  the 
total  number  of  children  in  this  kingdom  whom  our 
present  system  leaves  parents,  in  so  many  instances, 
to  bring  up  to  the  curses,  and  miseries,  and  crimes  of 
ignorance — a  disgrace,  a  danger,  and  a  burden  to  the 
community. 


APPENDIX. 


201 


ESTIMATED  NUMBER   OF   CHILDREN   OF   THE  WORKING  CLASSES,  BE 
TWEEN  3  AND  15,  NEITHEE  "  AT  SCHOOL,"  NOB  "AT  WOKK." 


CENSUS  RETURNS. 
(Evidence,  p.  470.) 

PRIVATE  INQUIRY, 

INCLUDING  CHILDREN  NOT  IN  TUB 
CENSUS  RETURNS. 

(Evidence,  pp.  359,  361.) 

Total  No.  of  Chil-  )  .„ 
dren  under  15  f  130'60? 
"    under  8  32,11S 
(Total  Number  of  Children 
between  Sand  15... 

| 

98,490 

58,624 
39,866j 

Total  No.  of  Children  be 
tween  3  and  15. 

!  99,193 
56.251 

Children  of  all  classes 
attending  school.  .  .  34,OT£ 
Children  not  at  school, 
but  supposed  to  be 
long  to  the  middle 
and  upper  classes, 
at  home,  in  employ 
ment,  or  receiving 
private  education..  10,450 
Assume  four  fifths  of 
children    "in    em 
ployment"  (Census 
Table)  to  belong  to 
the  working  class 
es)  11,728 

Total    No.    re 
ceiving    any 
kind  of  daily 
instruction.  .  44,593 
Under  3  634 

Total    receiving  any 
kind  of  daily  in 
struction,  between 
3  and  15  43  904 

Children  of  all  classes 
in          employment 
(same  age,)  14,660 

"  Children  receiving  instruc 
tion,"  or  "at  work"  

Children    "at   school''    or 
"atworK"  

Children   not    described    as' 
"  receiving      instruction" 
either   "at  home"  or  "at 
school,"  or  "in  employ- 

Children    of    the   working 
classes  not  "  at  school"  nor 
"  at  work"  

42,942 

REMARKS  ON  THE  CENSUS  RETURNS. 

1.  These  returns  include  all  children  whom  the  differ 
ent  parties  that  made  the  returns  considered  to  be  re 
ceiving  any  kind  of  daily  instruction,  either  "  under  a 
master  or  governess  at  home,"  or  by  attending  school. 

2.  The  better  educated  classes  of  society  would  gen 
erally  make  such  returns  pretty  correctly;  and,  there 
fore,  comparatively  few  of  the  children  of  these  classes 


.  202  APPENDIX. 

will  be  found  among  such,  as  in  the  above  table,  are 
"  undescribed." 

3.  The  less  educated  and  many  of  the  working  classes 
are  known  to  have  very  lax  notions  respecting  school 
attendance  ;  and,  therefore,  the  returns  from  those  classes 
may  be  considered  to  be  much  exaggerated. 

4.  And  consequently  it  is  probable  that  the  number 
of  children  "  undescribed"  will  fall  short  of  the  whole 
number  of  children  of  the  working  classes  ALONE,  who, 
though  not  prevented  by  "work,"  are  not  "attending 
day  school." 

REMARKS  ON  THE  PRIVATE  INQUIRY. 

1.  The  number  of  "children  attending  school"  ex 
ceeds  by  5358  the  corresponding  returns  of  the  census, 
Ev.  p.  475 ;  although  the  total  number  of  children  in 
this  Table  exceeds  that  with  which  it  is  compared  by 
only  703  children;    and  therefore   this  Table  makes  a 
very  liberal  representation  of  the  total  school  attendance. 

2.  No  evidence  has  been  adduced  to  show  that  the 
additional  number  (22,178)  here  taken  to  represent  the 
children  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes  "  at  home"  or  "  in 
employment,"  together  with  those  of  the  working  classes 
"  in  employment,"  is  likely  to  be  below  the  actual  number. 

3.  And,  consequently,  the  statements  in  ths  Tablei 
representing  the   average   number   of  children   of   the 
working  classes  neither  "  at  school"  nor   "  in  employ 
ment,"  have  no  less  claim  for  consideration  than  the 
Census  Table,  although  it  appears  to  differ  in  the  result. 

It  has  been  stated  in  evidence  (pages  360,  391)  that 
about  "  54,670  children  belonging  to  the  laboring  classes, 


APPENDIX.  203 

whether  employed  or  not,  are  not  attending  day  schools" 
and  that  no  reason  has  been  alleged,  that  ought  to  be 
considered  satisfactory,  why  "  one  half,  at  least/1  of  that 
number  ought  not  '•  to  be  in  some  school  receiving  edu 
cation."  It  is  indeed  highly  probable  that,  at  the  pre 
sent  time,  there  are  not  fewer  than  20,000  or  30,000 
children  of  the  laboring  classes  kept  from  day  school, 
without  being  in  employment  or  detained  at  home 
through  sickness,  domestic  need,  or  any  other  sufficient 
cause,  and  who  ought  therefore  to  be  gathered  into  school. 

The  most  extraordinary  errors  may  lurk  under  cjen- 
eral  statistics  ;  the  public,  judging  by  them  alone, 
may  cherish  the  delusion  that  all  is  right  when 
much  is  wrong. — P.  143. 

How  easily  statistical  facts,  unless  regarded  in  all  their 
bearings,  may  be  the  means  of  producing  a  false  impres 
sion,  is  illustrated  by  the  following  Table.  Looking  only 
at  the  increase  of  attendance  at  the  Church  of  England, 
British,  and  Denominational  Schools,  one  would  infer  a 
great  improvement  in  the  educational  state  of  Manches 
ter  ;  but  further  inquiry  shows,  that  what  one  class  of 
schools  has  gained  another  has  lost ;  that  the  scholars 
have  not  increased  as  they  should  have  clone,  but  only 
shifted  their  ground. 

From  that  Table,  also,  it  will  be  seen,  that  while  the 
attendance  at  Church  and  Denominational  Schools  has 
increased  since  1834-5,  from  5434  to  16,367,  the  attend 
ance  at  Private  Schools,  of  all  classes,  has  decreased  from 
18,465  to  11,713.  And  hence  it  appears  that  the  in 
creased  attendance  at  Public  Schools  is  to  be  attributed 


204 


APPENDIX. 


in  a  much  greater  degree  to  the  withdrawing  of  children 
from  Private  Schools,  than  to  the  bringing  of  additional 
children  under  the  influence  of  education. 

This  circumstance  is  the  more  important  when  taken 
in  connection  with  the  fact,  that  the  increase  of  school 
attendance  during  the  last  17  years  has  fallen  short  con 
siderably  of  the  increase  of  the  population. 


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APPENDIX.  205 

While  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to  provide  the  means 
of  education,  it  is  no  less  her  duty  to  see  that  they 
are  used. — P.  144. 

It  appears  to  us  plain  that  society  should  charge  itself 
with  the  duty  of  promptly  meeting  the  educational 
wants  of  our  country.  The  very  existence  of  Britain's 
power  and  position,  the  interests  of  religion,  the  welfare 
of  the  nation,  are  involved  in  this  subject.  The  question 
of  a  complete  religious  education  belongs  to  the  churches ; 
the  question  of  such  an  education  as  shall  make  men 
useful  members  of  society  belongs  to  the  state;  and 
while  we  would  strongly  deprecate  a  secular  system  of 
education,  excluding  the  leading  principles  of  a  common 
Christianity  from  our  common  schools;  unless  the  differ 
ent  denominations  will  so  agree  to  make  that  practicable, 
they  will  drive  men  into  the  secular  system ;  for  surely 
better  that  these  poor  children  should  get  some  instruc 
tion  than  that  they  be  left  without  any  knowledge to 

live,  and  sin,  and   die  uninstructed  as  the  brutes  that 
perish. 

It  is  a  scandal  to  the  churches  that  there  should  be 
any  difficulty  found  in  agreeing  on  a  system  of  religious 
instruction  suitable  to  little  children.  We  are  sure  that 
that  difficulty  has  no  foundation  in  the  Word  of  God. 
What  have  these  infants  to  do  with  those  ecclesiastical 
and  doctrinal  questions  which  unhappily  divide  good 
men  among  us?  If  we  that  are  adults  can  always  join 
in  private  worship  with  each  other,  and  on  occasions  in 
public  worship,  and  even  sit  down  at  the  Lord's  table 
with  each  other,  recognising  amid  all  our  differences  a 
common  brotherhood  and  a  common  faith,  it  were  a 
18 


206  APPENDIX. 

melancholy  thing  indeed  if  we  cannot  agree  about  the 
simple  elements  of  religion  that  are  to  be  taught  to  little 
children ;  and  that  this  wretched  difficulty  should  be  an 
obstruction  in  the  way  of  that  national  system  of  edu 
cation  which  the  state  is  bound  to  establish,  and  without 
which  no  voluntary  efforts  will  ever  meet  the  wants  of 
the  country. 

It  should  encourage  Government  and  the  Parliament 
to  know  that  the  people  belonging  to  the  different  de 
nominations  do  not  sympathise  with  the  extremer  views 
of  their  ministers,  and  that  they  would  heartily  rejoice 
in  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  education  which 
would  meet  the  wants  of  the  country,  although  it  did 
not  meet  the  views  and  demands  of  those  ecclesiastics 
who  would  perversely  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  peo 
ple  to  their  own  crotchets,  love  of  power,  or  denomina 
tional  peculiarities. 

So  long  as  this  is — what,  no  doubt,  it  will  ever  be — a 
Protestant  country,  the  Protestant  religion  should  be 
that  of  national  schools ;  but  communicated  in  such  a 
way  as  to  give  complete  freedom  to  the  consciences  of 
Roman  Catholics,  or  any  other  party  declining  to  receive 
the  religious  instruction  provided  in  the  public  schools. 
The  children  of  Roman  Catholic  parents  may  be  allowed 
to  leave  the  school  at  the  time  of  religious  instruction  ; 
or  whenever,  if  such  a  system  should  be  preferred,  there 
were  a  sufficient  number  of  Roman  Catholics  as  to  fur 
nish  children  for  a  school  supported  out  of  the  public 
funds,  let  these  be  applied  to  giving  secular  instruction 
only — the  religious  education  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  being  left  to  parents  or  priests.  Thus  the  coun 
try  would  secure  that  all  these  children  receive  a  good 


APPENDIX.  207 

secular  education,  and  the  country  would  not  be  em 
ploying  the  public  funds  in  the  propagation  of  what  this 
Protestant  kingdom  regards  as  dangerous  errors. 

Whatever  arrangement-  the  state  may  make  as  to 
these  matters,  one  thing  she  is  entitled  and  bound  to  do, 
and  that  is  this,  to  require  that  every  child  within  her 
bounds  shall  be  educated.  If  the  parents  are  able  but 
unwilling  to  do  that,  they  should  be  compelled  to  do  it- 
punished  if  they  don't  do  it.  If  they  are  not  able  to  do 
that,  then  it  should  be  done  at  the  public  expense.  To 
make  sure  that  this  is  done,  a  system  of  inspection  should 
be  established.  Such  a  system  would  not  be  found  to 
interfere  in  the  least  degree  with  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  those  who  do  their  duty  to  their  children  and  to  the 
state ;  like  other  arrangements  and  laws  for  the  preserv 
ing  of  honesty  and  order,  that  system  would  only  be  a 
terror,  and  a  check,  and  a  yoke  to  "  evil-doers."  People 
might  send  their  children  to  public  schools  or  private 
schools,  national  or  denominational  schools;  but  tho 
state  is  entitled  to  see  that  they  are  receiving  at  least  a 
plain  education  at  some  school. 

The  state  is  called  on  to  extend  the  law  to  all  man 
ufactures,  work,  and  service,  which  applies  at  present 
to  the  flax  and  cotton  mill?.  Why  should  the  children 
laboring  in  these  manufactories  enjoy  a  protection  denied 
to  others?  what  is  good  for  them  is  good  for  others; 
what  was  needed  by  them  is  needed  by  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  the  children  whose  education  is 
neglected,  and  whose  best  interests  are  sacrificed  to  the 
profits  of  their  masters  and  the  cupidity  of  their  parents. 
The  state  should  require,  as  it  does  in  other  countries, 
that  no  child  be  allowed  to  engage  in  any  kind  of  remu~ 


208  APPENDIX. 

nerative  labor  until  it  has  received  a  plain  education,  or 
unless  arrangements  are  made,  while  it  is  engaged  in 
service  or  in  manufacture,  to  conduct  and  complete  its 
education  by  so  many  hours  a-day  being  set  apart  to 
that  purpose. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  fact  that  John  Knox — in  whose 
eye  education  bulked  so  large,  that  at  the  Keformation 
he  proposed  that  one-fourth  and  more  of  the  whole  of 
the  immense  revenues  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
(the  greater  part  of  which  were  devoured  by  the  Crown 
and  nobles)  should  be  sacredly  devoted  to  the  purpose 
of  educating  the  children  of  the  nation — three  hundred 
years  ago  laid  down  the  very  principle  which  we  advo 
cate,  and  which  is  carried  into  practical  effect  with  so 
much  advantage  in  some  parts  of  the  Continent.  It  re 
flects  immortal  honor  on  the  memory  of  that  great  man, 
that  the  education  of  the  people  was  with  him  a  first  ob 
ject;  one  to  be  striven  for  most  resolutely,  and  paid  for  most 
liberally ;  and  that  he  had  the  far-seeing  eye  to  discern 
the  great  principle  on  which  the  working  of  the  system 
should  be  based, — viz.,  the  right  and  duty  of  the  state  to 
require  that  every  child  within  its  bounds  shall  receive 
such  an  education  as  to  make  it  a  useful  member  of  so 
ciety.  He  has  embodied  that  in  these  words,  extracted 
from  the  First  Book  of  Discipline,  which  was  laid  before 
the  Great  Council  of  Scotland  in  1560 : — "  This  must  be 
carefully  provided,  that  no  father,  of  what  state  or  con 
dition  that  ever  he  be,  use  his  children  at  his  own  fan- 
tasie,  especially  in  then-  youth-head;  but  all  must  be 
compelled  to  bring  up  their  children  in  learning  and 
virtue." 


APPENDIX.  209 

In  the  United  States  of  America,  by  one  of  their  last 
reports,  complaints  appear  to  come  from  every  part 
of  the  country  that  parents  neglect  to  send  their 
children  to  school. — P.  144. 

See  the  Twentieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  published  at  Boston,  1857. 

What  an  appaling  picture  of  irreligion  do  our  large 
towns  present ! — P.  151. 

EDINBURGH. — The  Report  of  the  Royal  Commissioners 
on  Religious  Instruction  proclaimed  the  fact,  that  one- 
third  of  the  entire  population  of  Edinburgh,  or  50,000 
people,  had  no  fixed  connection  with  any  Christian 
Church. 

GLASGOW.— In  this  city  the  proportion  of  its  inhabit 
ants  which  should  be  found  attending  church  is,  at  the 
lowest  computation,  above  200,000.  The  whole  amount 
of  church  accommodation  there  is  for  140,000.  So  that 
if  all  the  churches  were  filled  to  overflowing,  there  would 
still  be  more  than  60,000  in  that  city  who  were  attend 
ing  no  house  of  God.  But  one  of  the  most  benevolent 
and  intelligent  and  Christian  merchants  of  Glasgow  in 
formed  me  that  many  of  the  churches  are  not  more  than 
half  filled ;  so  that  we  may  consider  ourselves  as  making 
a  very  moderate  calculation  in  concluding  that  more 
than  100,000  people  in  the  city  of  Glasgow  are  living  in 
a  state  of  practical  heathenism  in  this  Christian  land. 

These  calculations  are  corroborated  by  the  statistics  of 
the  City  Mission,  published  in  February,  1856-.  It  ap- 
18* 


210  APPENDIX. 

pears  from  this  document  that  they  have  divided  the 
city  into  54  districts,  and  that  in  these  districts  there  are 
25,546  families  who  are  on  the  whole  non-church-going, 
and  15,675  families  who  never  enter  a  church.  These 
are  nominally  Protestants.  It  is  estimated  by  them  that 
each  family  consists  of  4^  individuals;  and  thus  there 
are  110,699  individuals  who  are  on  the  whole  non- 
church-going,  and  67,925  who  never  enter  a  church. 

An  admirable  Report,  entitled  "  Mission  Churches  of 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church  in  Glasgow,"  fully  bears 
out  the  preceding  statements.  From  a  thorough  exam 
ination  of  the  state  of  the  city,  and  careful  calculations, 
they  arrive  at  this  conclusion,  that  in  Glasgow  there  are 
"  in  addition  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  100,204  persons 
living  in  open  contempt  of  the  ordinances  of  religion. 
The  astounding  fact  is  thus  reached,  that  we  are  living 
in  the  midst  of  180,000  fellow-citizens,  popish  and  hea 
then,  that  is,  one-half  of  our  entire  population  who  stand 
in  pressing  need  of  our  missionary  exertions." 

LONDON  AND  ITS  DISTKICTS  some  years  ago  contained  a 
population  of  2,434,868.  The  city  was  increasing  annu 
ally  at  the  rate  of  25,000.  The  accommodation  provided 
in  the  churches  of  all  denominations  would  not  accom 
modate  one-third  of  the  whole  population ;  and  although 
these  were  all  full  to  overflowing,  London  would  contain 
649,297  living  in  a  state  of  practical  heathenism.  But 
it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  a  great  many  of  the  churches 
in  the  metropolis  are  miserably  thin ;  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  terrible  statement,  that 
more  than  One  Million  of  the  people  of  London  are  liv 
ing  in  the  habit  of  neglecting  the  worship  and  house  of 
God, 


APPENDIX.  211 


We  have  had  already  fruit  of  our  labors. — P.  154. 

The  following  statement  regarding  the  Pleasance  Ter 
ritorial  Mission  was  published  by  my  colleague,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Hanna,  to  whose  zeal  and  labors  under  God,  this 
interesting  and  important  work  owes  much  of  its  exist 
ence  and  success, 

PLEASANCE  TERRITORIAL  MISSION. 

"  This  mission  has  now  been  in  operation  for  about 
four  years.  During  that  time  we  have  succeeded  in  get 
ting  almost  evey  child  of  proper  age  within  the  district 
marked  out  for  our  operations,  to  attend  our  schools. 
There  were  nearly  200  children  in  that  position  when 
we  began  our  work.  There  are  not  now  more  than  half 
a  dozen.  Our  success  in  this  department  has  been  com 
plete.  To  realize  it,  we  had  to  buy  a  site  and  build  a 
school-house,  at  a  cost  of  upwards  of  £600,  and  we  had 
to  give  good  salaries  to  our  schoolmaster  and  school 
mistress.  But  it  was  not  the  building  of  the  school- 
house,  nor  the  providing  of  a  good  education  for  all  who 
chose  to  seek  it,  which  accomplished  the  great  object 
we  had  in  view,  namely,  the  bringing  those  children 
to  school  who  otherwise  would  have  grown  up  unedu 
cated.  It  was  the  repeated  visits  of  the  missionary,  and 
of  the  lady  agents  to  the  homes  of  the  people,  explain 
ing  to  them  the  benefits  which  the  school  erected  in 
their  neighborhood  was  fitted  to  confer  upon  their 
families,  and  urging  those  who  had  children  of  the  right 
age  to  send  them  thorp  to  be  taught,  which  realized  that 


212  APPENDIX. 

end ;  and  it  is  by  such  means  alone  that  the  uneducated 
children  of  the  lowest  class  of  our  population  can  ever 
be  gathered  into  the  school-house. 

"  But  it  is  far  easier,  within  any  district,  to  bring  every 
child  to  school  than  every  adult  to  church,  especially 
where  neglect  of  divine  ordinances  has  been  of  long  con 
tinuance,  and  is  the  prevailing  habit  of  the  stair,  or  close, 
or  street,  in  which  such  forsakers  of  the  sanctuary  are 
congregated.  To  reclaim  such  to  habits  of  church-going 
is  the  most  difficult  thing  to  which  Christian  benevolence 
can  put  its  hands.  Concentrated  and  sustained  effort, 
much  patience  and  many  prayers,  are  all  required.  But 
our  labors  in  this  department  also  have  not  been  without 
good  fruit.  A  small  congregation,  composed  almost  en 
tirely  of  those  who  had  been  living  in  entire  neglect  of 
divine  ordinances,  has  been  gathering.  For  the  last 
three  years  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  has  been 
regularly  dispensed.  One  hundred  and  twelve  individuals 
have  been  admitted  to  the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
Fifty  of  these  had  never  been  in  connection  with  any 
Church ;  so  many  as  thirty-three  of  whom  were  far  ad 
vanced  in  life.  There  were  forty-seven,  with  some  of 
whom  it  had  been  ten,  with  some  twenty,  with  some 
thirty  years  since  they  had  sat  down  at  the  table  of  the 
Lord ;  leaving  only  fifteen  out  of  the  hundred  and  twelve 
who  were  in  full  communion  when  they  joined  our  little 
congregation.  The  ordinary  attendance  at  puplic  wor 
ship,  which  began  with  about  a  dozen,  now  averages 
from  eighty  to  a  hundred  in  the  forenoon,  rnd  from  a 
hundred  to  a  hundred  and  sixty  in  the  afternoon. 

"  The  school-room  in  which  the  services  have  been 
held  is  now  quite  full.  We  have  arrived  at  that  stage 


APPENDIX.  213 

when,  unless  a  church  and  a  minister  be  provided,  but 
little  further  progress  can  be  made.     We  are  as  far  on— 
we  have  as  many  communicants  and  as  large  an  attend 
ance,  as  any  of  those  territorial  missions  in  whose  steps 
we  are  following  had,  when  churches  and  ministers  were 
provided  for  them.     It  is  our  intention  to  apply  to  the 
Church  Courts  to  have  Mr.  Cochrane,  our  present  mis 
sionary,  licensed  and  ordained  as  the  minister  of  that 
little  flock  which  he  has  gathered  in  from  the  wilderness. 
At  a  meeting  lately,  held  with  them,  the  communicants 
expressed  this  to  be  their  unanimous  and  most  earnest 
desire.     It  remains  only  that  we  provide  a  suitable  place 
of  worsliip.     It  has  been  resolved  that  upon  this  building 
there   shall  be   no  debt,  and  that  beyond  the  present 
there  shall  be  no  second  application  made.     Whatever 
be  the  sum  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Committee  ap 
pointed  by  the  Session,  they  are  resolved  not  to  go  a 
farthing  beyond  it  in  their  expenditure.     We  have,  how 
ever,  not  only  a  church  to  build,  we  must  either  enlarge 
our  infant  school-room  or  erect  a  more  commodious  one. 
The  Government  Inspector  of  Schools  has  imposed  upon 
us  the  condition  either  of  doing  this,  or  of  dismissing  a 
number  of  the  children,  which  we  cannot  make  up  our 
minds  to  do.     Without  venturing  to  assign  any  scale  of 
giving,  it  is  our  earnest  hope  that,  by  one  effort  of  gene 
rosity,  we  may  be  enabled  to  perfect  the  external  appa 
ratus  of  this  mission,  and  so  put  it  in  condition  for  making 
that  further  and  still  greater  progress  which  we  can  have 
no  doubt  that,  when  so  furnished,  it  will,  with  the  divine 
blessing,  speedily  realize." 

We  are  now  about  to  build  a  regular  place  of  worship 
in  this  locality,  and  to  form  the  people  into  a  regular 


214  APPENDIX. 

congregation  under  an  ordained  minister ;  and  as  we 
must  raise  £1000  at  least  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the 
building,  the  public  are  earnestly  solicited  to  lend  us  a 
helping  hand.  Any  money  sent  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hanna, 
Castle  Terrace,  or  the"  Rev.  Dr.  Guthrie,  Salisbury  Rond, 
Edinburgh,  will  be  gratefully  received.  We  need  sympa 
thy  and  support,  and  we  hope  for  them. 

The  wo?'k  would  be  found  to  be  perfectly  practicable. 
—Pp.  156,  157. 

On  this  subject  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bonar,  one  of  the  minis 
ters  of  the  Canongate,  in  a  pamphlet  full  of  startling  facts 
and  earnest  pleading,  which  he  has  just  published,  makes 
the  following  statement  in  reference  to  the  case  of  the 
West-Port  Territorial  Church,  which  is  all  the  more 
valuable  not  only  as  given  by  a  clergyman  who  is 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  condition  of  the  lower 
classes,  but  who  belongs  to  a  different  church  from 
those  who  have  so  successfully  cultivated  that  district 
of  our  city : — "  So  far  from  being  Utopian,  the  plan  in 
dicated  has  been  justified  by  actual  results.  In  one 
of  the  very  worst  localities  of  Edinburgh,  to  which,  only 
a  few  years  before,  an  infamous  notoriety  attached,  in 
which,  upon  survey,  it  was  found  that  in  the  main 
streets  and  adjoining  wynds,  out  of  411  families,  only 
45  were  attached  to  any  Christian  communion,  70 
were  Roman  Catholics,  and  296  were  entirely  uncon 
nected  with  any  church ;  wherein,  out  of  a  gross  popu 
lation  of  2000,  1500  were  living  strangers  to  the  observ 
ance  of  religion,  and  in  which  290  children  were  grow 
ing  up  wholly  untaught ;  a  district  in  which  the  moral 


APPENDIX.  215 

and  physical  condition  of  the  community  was  most  de 
plorable,  one  fourth  being  paupera  and  another  fourth 
street-beggars,  thieves,  and  prostitutes ;— in  this  locality 
a  wonderful  change  has  been  brought  about.    The  West- 
Port  was  divided  into  twenty  districts,  each  containing 
twenty  families.     A  school  was  opened— not  on  the  sys 
tem  of  gratuitous  instruction— first  of  all,  at  the  end  of 
the  close  where  the  atrocities  of  Burke  and  Hare  had 
been  committed,  in  an  old  deserted  tannery,  approached 
by  a  flight  of  wooden  steps.     At  the  outset  appearances 
were  abundantly  unpromising,  and  on  the  first  occasion, 
after  the  advices,  requests,  and  entreaties  which  had  for 
many  previous  weeks  been  brought  to  bear  upon  those 
whose  highest  good  was  contemplated  and  desired,  only 
about  a  dozen  adults,  and  these  chiefly  old  women,  were 
present.     Now  there  is  a  substantial  church,  well  at 
tended,  and  not  long  since  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  a 
gallery ;  schools,  week-day  and  evening,  largely  attend 
ed  likewise,  with  the  other  desiderata  of  a  library  and  a 
savings-bank,  a  washing-house,  and  a  female  industrial 
school.      The  problem  has  been  solved.     An  instance 
was  afforded,  to  adopt  the  words  of  Dr.  Chalmers'  biog 
rapher,  '  in  which  the  depths  of  city  ignorance  and  vice 
have  been  sounded  to  the  very  bottom ;  nor  can   the 
possibility  of  cleansing  the  foul  basement  storey  of  our 
social  edifice  be  doubted  any  longer.'     Nor  do  we  won 
der  that  the  great  Christian  philanthropist— for  so  he 
must  be  regarded   by  all   unprejudiced   minds— nailed 
what  he  was  spared  to  see  as  'the  streaks  and  dawning 
of  a  better  day,'  and  was  willing,  'after  the  strung 
and  discomfitures  of  thirty  years,'  to  'depart  in  peace 
and  leave  the  further  prosecution  with  comfort  and  calm 
ness  in  the  hands  of  another  generati 


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